OSR OSR Layout and Design Thread

This is a pretty good dungeon creation guide, although I think it'll likely produce a dungeon that would be hard to squeeze into four pages for the Appendix N Jam. (Some clever folks last year worked the map into their cover, maximizing the amount of space they had.)
I'm pretty good on dungeons, but yeah, that article is solid. I'm not doing a cover, I've got a 1/3 spread art bit that does that job, and the map and key will take a similar amount of space. I'm stretching my design wings a little to try and fit more into less space. I could have done a trad 7-10 room dungeon, but that's not exciting at all, for me or anyone else. I want to win, or place well, so I'm going to push some limits.
 

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One thing that always looks off is the cross-bar “I” where it doesn’t belong. In comic lettering for blocks of text it’s only ever used as the first person pronoun “I,” as the first letter in a name, or as part of an acronym. Never anywhere else. Most comic fonts are all caps with the regular “I” as the lower case and the crossbar “I” as the upper case, so you don’t need to all caps your text to make it look right and the right “I” will usually be in the right place.

There are some good OFL comic fonts here:

2300+ Free Open Source Fonts (OFL) › Fontesk

And there’s always Blambot:

I recommend Iconian...https://iconian.com/
 



No, but the licenses are cheap. Unlike Blambot.
Cheap, in terms of fonts, is still outside my budget. The only thing I'm prepared to pay for at this point is art, and even that I mostly can't afford. There are so many great free for commercial use fonts that I don't feel a lack there yet.
 

Cheap, in terms of fonts, is still outside my budget. The only thing I'm prepared to pay for at this point is art, and even that I mostly can't afford. There are so many great free for commercial use fonts that I don't feel a lack there yet.
Fonts are art, man.
 

Fonts are art, man.
Indeed, and there is tons of great font art that you don't have to pay for if you have the time to sift through the various sites. I'm a bit of a font nut, I'll admit, but I haven't had any issues finding exactly what I want for the 14 or so things I've published. Don't get me wrong, buying font licenses is fine and cool, but it probably shouldn't be at the top of a small creator's things to do with my finite money list if the budget is tight.
 

Indeed, and there is tons of great font art that you don't have to pay for if you have the time to sift through the various sites. I'm a bit of a font nut, I'll admit, but I haven't had any issues finding exactly what I want for the 14 or so things I've published. Don't get me wrong, buying font licenses is fine and cool, but it probably shouldn't be at the top of a small creator's things to do with my finite money list if the budget is tight.
While that is entirely fair, unless I'm pulling from a foundry I've pulled from before, one that self-hosts, or an otherwise known licensing situation, I find that it is very difficult to trust the font collation sites' listings for licenses on a font and spend as much time validating as some cost.

Different tradeoffs.
 

While that is entirely fair, unless I'm pulling from a foundry I've pulled from before, one that self-hosts, or an otherwise known licensing situation, I find that it is very difficult to trust the font collation sites' listings for licenses on a font and spend as much time validating as some cost.

Different tradeoffs.
Most of the font sites have pretty clear licensing info in my experience, I mean you have to look a little, but it's a quick search and google away, it's not a ton of work.
 

Most of the font sites have pretty clear licensing info in my experience, I mean you have to look a little, but it's a quick search and google away, it's not a ton of work.
Yes.

However, imo, it is frequently wrong and/or contradictory. The older the face, the more likely.
 

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