Thin > Black master set up for a geometric sans serif

Design
1

I would like to set up a new font project with only two masters going from thin (20 unit stem width) to extra black (250 stem unit).

I figure I’ll need a lot of Brace/Bracket tricks to solve contrast issues in all but the extra black one maybe on the bold as well.

Would it be simpler to use the brace tricks or just go ahead and add a middle master for bold?

2

Working on a typeface with the same workflow.
Have around 600 glyphs / 300 non-compenented glyphs and less than 50 bracked-layered variants plus interpolationWeightY — works out quite well.

3

Thanks for the insight Jakob, this gives me confidence in tackling it in two masters.
Have you set bracketed on these 50 or intervened with the brace trick?
If the latter, did you design more than one instance (say, regular, semibold, etc) or just the variation right before the point where the contrast needs to change?

I hadn’t heard of interpolationWeightY, and it looks like the solution might be there (just read it in the handbook).

Thanks!

4

Always mix up these two parenthesis names.
I use Additional Masters for Individual Glyphs: The Brace Trick.
With the brace trick i added a regular master only to some glyphs. Even bold looks ok if the temporary regular corrects the black-to-light interpolation.
When in doubt you always can “generate instances” and import the regular as real third master later.

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5

Also hepful: Modified @mekkablue’s https://github.com/mekkablue/Glyphs-Scripts/blob/master/Masters/New%20Tab%20with%20Bracket%20Layer%20Glyphs.py to bracket OR brace to keep an overview of all temporary master.

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6

Last but not least: in another projekt, also a geometric sans, i have three masters plus some braced instances to improve the bold.
So it depense on the design.

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