The lowercase ¡ is a relatively
easy letter to design, but the j’s
simple appearance can easily
misrepresent the task at hand.
Once the stem weight and serif
structure have been established
for the lowercase characters,
designing an i is pretty much
limited to assembling its vari¬
ous elements. The only part of
the character that requires
some thought is the dot.

There are two theories as to
how the ¡ and j obtained their
dots. One suggests that the j
got its dot first, around the
thirteenth century, in an
attempt to further distinguish
it from the i. The other theory
states that the ¡ got its dot first
(at about the same time), not
only to indicate its phonetic
difference from the j but to
help distinguish it from char¬
acters like m, n, and u, which at
the time were drawn as a series
of simple vertical strokes.

The dots of is and js must
convey the same weight opti¬
cally as the stems. They should
also be close enough to the
stem that they do not appear to
float in space, but not so close
that they crowd the principal
part of the letter in text compo¬
sition. While most dots are
positioned directly over the
stem, in some old style designs
like Deepdene and Lutetia the
dot is offset to the right as if it
had been jotted quickly as the
hand rushed on to make the
next letter. Some designers feel
•

1 Adobe Garamond

Deepdene

that offsetting an i’s dots can
help the reader by emphasizing
the left-to-right movement
across the page.

With the lowercase j, type
designers have tails to contend
with. Generally the j’s tail is
devised as an upside-down
mirror image of the f’s bowl,
but designers would be short¬
changing the j if they actually
handled it that way. If a design¬
er were to base the j on the f,
the weight of the vertical stroke
would have to be increased
slightly to make it consistent
with those in other characters.
In addition, the top of an f is
usually wider than the bottom
of the j.

New Caledonia Italic

Baskerville Italic

Futura Extra Bold

Broadway Engraved

Monotype

Onyx

Letraset

Burlington

Künstler
Script Black

'endon

ITC Zapf Chancery

AG Book
Rounded
Bold

ГС Legacy Serif Ultra

Helvetica Black

Present Script