Style: Italic: lowercase 'f' italic descender/tail

or round the bottom part

I think there is something to this.

When I look at the italicised f in the context of a word it aften seems
like the bottom part curves *forward* slightly. I think that's because
the eye is expecting it to curve *backward* at the bottom below the
baseline, like a real Olde English f, but it's just straight.

I think it's worth asking for a variation to be mocked up, though it's
very late in the game on this front. DM?

Mark

The shape of the italic 'f' is ultimately is a stylistic decision rather than a technical bug. However, I also see it as having merit and I too would like to see the 'f' tested with a backwards curve on the descending tail (which is what my eyes are expecting to see).

Again, I don't think the existing glyph should be thrown away completely, and regardless of the outcome, could be kept as an alternative (or vice-versa). The final default shape of the 'f' is however something would probably have to be decided upon before the first widely tagged/distributed release (when effectively the Latin metrics get set in stone) as the negative x on the tail will likely affect those metrics.

DM: per Mark's request, can you try a full-curvaceous tail on the italic 'f' to balance the top of the character.

Thank you for your comment. This comment refers to the style of the font. Stylistic comments are subjective in nature and will be marked as wish list items to be reviewed as part of a future round of development. Ubuntu Beta testing is focussed on finding and reporting technical bugs within the font.

Ivanka, please read my comment on this bug, I do wish to see an A/B
option here as I think the straight descender looks like it bends the
wrong way. We missed that on the first stylistic review.

Mark

This /does/ need working out before opening as the character of the glyph will likely have an impact of metrics, kerning and ligature tables.

This illusion of the forward learning 'f' has been corrected in version 0.67. This was achieved with a subtle backflick.

ubuntu-font-family-sources (0.68+ufl-0ubuntu1) maverick; urgency=low

  * New upstream release 0.68+ufl: (LP: #629622, #633508)
    - Libre font, licensed under the Ubuntu Font Licence 1.0 (LP: #632411)

  * New upstream release 0.68:
    - All
      + Version numbering agreed (LP: #633176, #629727)
      + The glyph at Unicode x1F5d was changed in all fonts, i.e. change
        of commaaccent in Greek glyph
      + Updated OS/2 table Strikethrough and 'post' table underline
        values to match thickness of underscore.
    - Italic / Bold Italic
      + The feminineordinal in the Italic now follows the design of
        the a, it has been updated and hinted.

  * New upstream release 0.67:
    - All
      + Version number forwarded to 0.67
    - Regular
      + Hinting adjustments for 15 - 18 ppm
      + Greek glyph uni1F5D has accent corrected.
      + Hinting amends for lowercase v, w and y in sizes 30 - 42
      + hdmx table include 120dpi ranges (LP: #608823)
      + Hinting amended to adjust for Freetype hint
        implementation. (LP: #614693)
    - Italic
      + Greek glyph uni1F5D has accent corrected.
    - Italic / Bold Italic:
      + lowercase f redesigned. (LP: #623925)
      + ae dipthong redesigned. (LP: #620057)

 -- Paul Sladen <email address hidden> Tue, 28 Sep 2010 06:00:00 +0100

"Double-stacking" this bug report, as the Ubuntu Light Italic still needs this change.

Demo PDF for 'f':

This is already fixed for Ubuntu Light italic since ages ago (test it with Google Web Fonts). I'd rather prefer the old, flat 'f'...