Inverted Letters

[Buckyrig]

Is it an imposition to a letterer to request backwards letters for a character? Like the 'R' in Toys R Us. Or is it a simple thing to do?

And is it easier to change any slant to the opposite direction? Or would maintaining the same slant regardless of the direction the letter is facing be doable?

[Jason Arthur]

any letterer worth his/her salt would be able to do the backwards R with no worries.

I'm not sure what you mean about the slant though, care to elaborate?

-- J

[Kep!]

Yup, easy enough for all. if it's a regular series though, I'd be making a new font as doing it everytime would be tedious...but for now and again it's simple.

[Buckyrig]

Thanks.

I didn't doubt it could be done. I was just curious as to how much of a pain in the ass it would be. I like to know, as much as possible, exactly what I would be asking of someone.

As for slant, maybe there is another term. I mean that most letters lean to the right to some degree. A mirror image would lean to the left and look a bit off...which is not the effect I'm looking for.

[Kep!]

Do you mean italics?

[Buckyrig]

No.

A lot lettering is at least slightly slanted, even when not using italics. For example, the peak on an 'A' is usually offset slightly to the right. The 'C' and the 'G' push off to the right at the top...etc...

http://www.onlinestuff.biz/media/stickers/letters/comicsans.jpg

[Jason Arthur]

http://www.jasonarthur.com/images/r.jpg

The R looks like an ok fit there. The slanting, if only concerning the letter R, should be minimal and un-noticed (most of the attention on the reader's part would be on the fact that the R is backwards anyhow).

-- J

[Buckyrig]

I used the 'R' as an example for clarification. The character's spoken words would have all reversed letters.

But there, you can see the alignment problem between the 'R' and the 'E'.

[Kep!]

Sounds like you're going to want to have a font created. Just a guess. on the other hand, simply writing backwards is actually easier, so you might want to consider that.

[Jason Arthur]

Yeah, I'd recommend having a font specially created. As you can see, a normal font, turned backwards just looks...silly:

http://www.jasonarthur.com/images/silly.jpg

I'd advise against such a method and instead devise an all-new font for this express purpose.

Let me know if you need help with font creation (the font in the above samples is my own).

-- J

[Kep!]

I agree. I find myself trying to read it backwards instead iof recognizing it's reversed on every letter...more annoying than it's worth.

[Buckyrig]

Thanks Jason. Didn't realize how bad that would look when I tried to picture it in my head.

I agree. I find myself trying to read it backwards instead iof recognizing it's reversed on every letter...more annoying than it's worth.

I kinda thought of going with the backwards thing, but reading Zatanna's spells, for example, always annoys me.

Maybe I'll just have to rethink what I was doing. I don't suppose a font with a lower case would look any better. Hmm...

[Jason Arthur]

http://www.jasonarthur.com/images/doubt.jpg

that says "I doubt it."

:)

-- J

[Kep!]

Thanks Jason. Didn't realize how bad that would look when I tried to picture it in my head.



I kinda thought of going with the backwards thing, but reading Zatanna's spells, for example, always annoys me.

Maybe I'll just have to rethink what I was doing. I don't suppose a font with a lower case would look any better. Hmm...
What's the effect you're going for, maybe we can give some suggestions?

[Jason Arthur]

Yeah, Kep and I are both writer/letterers so maybe we could help you out with this. Tell us about the character and why they need a special "voice."

thanks,

-- J

[Buckyrig]

I think I've come up with another way to approach it, but if you have a suggestion that makes sense...

Trying to indicate a character who moves backwards through time. It's an absurd scene, so there isn't too much to be concerned with as far as logic. I was actually looking for idiosyncracies to give the story.


I even thought of doing it phonetically, but that's useless from a storytelling standpoint.

[F!NCH]

Instead of, for example, “I'M MOVING BACKWARDS IN TIME.” you could arrange the words in reverse order to read “.TIME IN BACKWARDS MOVING I'M”.

It'd be easier to scan and still says “backwards” to the reader.

[Kep!]

That's a pretty slik way...and just a full paragraph reversal would look and read nice too.

[Buckyrig]

I'll take it under advisement. Thanks for the response.