iKern: autospacing & autokerning » Collaboration

Lecter Johnson

Igino Marini — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 15:31:47 +0000

Lecter Johnson, Doubletwo Studios: «It was so amazing, when i got my “bunch of letters” back from Igino, it really got alive. The fonts got a pretty nice rhythm and flow and since this point, after all the time of creation, the work did really make sense. I always found the act of kerning really tiresome, and it often inhibited the release of a font for a long time or maybe completely. So what can I say: I love the service and this definitely won’t be the last time…»

Derek Kim

Igino Marini — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 21:16:17 +0000

Derek Kim, Network Osaka: «My experience with Igino has been exceptional. I chose his service due to the fact that adjusting metrics and kerning has taken a lot of my time when trying to release typefaces, and with Igino’s assistance, I was able to save a considerable amount of time spent on adjusting kerning pairs. Of course, designers should always be aware that automatic kerning does have its ups and downs. Fine tuning kerning after the automatic values have been set is a critical point during the process. This is one of the reasons why Igino excels at what he does since he directly collaborated with me to create adjustments based upon my feedback with regards to certain kerning pairs. I recommend Igino to any aspiring or professional typographer.»

Oguzhan Ocalan

Igino Marini — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 15:51:44 +0000

Oguzhan Ocalan, Gravitart: «In type design, time and an experienced eye are always very important. The iKern service allows designers to focus more on designing and achieve good results faster. To Those who design typefaces but are not experienced in font development or don’t have the time to do the development themselves, I can truly recommend Igino’s service. Not only is he a very nice and helpful person, he’s also doing a great job and will definitely deserve big thanks at the end.»

Jeff Warrington

Igino Marini — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 15:33:00 +0000

Jeff Warrington, The Look Partnership: «I am excited to work with Igino and iKern. As a solo designer—and a control freak—iKern is a productive way to outsource spacing, kerning and font engineering, enabling me to focus on design, without loosing momentum to the tedious, but critical aspects of producing quality fonts.»

Mark Caneso

Igino Marini — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:13:59 +0000

Mark Caneso, p.s.type : «A huge thank you to Igino for his IKern Service. The greatest aspect of IKern, aside from the amazing job of spacing and kerning, is that it frees up so much time that can be focused on the creation of new designs and ideas. It was a pleasure working with Igino and I will definitely be collaborating with him again in the future.»

Rob Keller

Igino Marini — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:39:58 +0000

Rob Keller, Mota Italic: «Ever since meeting Igino in 2007 and seeing iKern work its magic first hand I have been an impressed fan. iKern’s headache-inducingly-complex algorithms assure consistent and even spacing; and the results are always fine-tuned exactly to the designer requests. Its strength and usefulness comes not only from the fine spacing and kerning it creates for thousands of glyphs, but it is flexible in handling special exceptions. For us, it easily accommodated an intricate system of alternates – integrating the hundreds of substitutions seamlessly while respecting the way they function. This agility, and the fact it is fully customizable, means that iKern can adapt to nearly any set of problems or needs. iKern certainly has our recommendation!»

Giangiorgio Fuga

Igino Marini — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 22:57:09 +0000

Giangiorgio Fuga, Giò Fuga Type: «I’m drawing and then digitizing fonts from many years. The most difficult step, but also the more boring because it takes much time, has always been the control of the metrics and the optical balance of kerning pairs. The advent of OpenType format, with its endless possibilities including the management of several enconding and therefore a much increased number of glyphs, made the kerning production a mammoth task. The various autokern functions already present in Fontographer or FontLab kerning assistance are not able to well and completely operate.
In my last work I found myself designing a custom font in three variables for Yamaha Motor, which included nearly 1200 glyphs each for the presence, besides the Latin alphabet, of Cyrillic and also Extended Greek. A manual optimization of kerning, especially for italic, would have been costly in time and certainly without harmonious and complete results.
Well, Igino’s Ikern “Type Design Service” has proved to be essential for a definitive fine tuning of the font family. I’m going to take advantage of his valuable service for all my fonts I’m upgrading to OpenType version. Thanks Igino!»

Lasko Dzurovski

Igino Marini — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 22:51:54 +0000

Lasko Dzurovski, Totem design+print: «My collaboration with Igino started when i found myself overwhelmed with the big volume and short deadline of my most recent project, which included creation of fonts with over 15000 characters. The kerning, personally the most difficult part for me, took me a lot of time and I wouldn’t have done it as perfectly as Igino with the iKern. A little twist in the glass was added when Igino had to deal with all the specific Cyrillic characters which have different kerning features, and he made it all work. iKern will definitely be an important part of my future projects.»

Patrick Griffin

Igino Marini — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 10:08:11 +0000

Patrick Griffin, Canada Type: «Igino Marini’s iKern system trumps every other font metrics method I’ve seen. Its advantage points over other fitting and kerning systems range from exception-aware mathematical modules to speedy global counterspace tweaking precision. It’s one of those things where the fonts you send in are all out of whack, and when you get them back they slap you awake with how much sense they make. And there’s a cherry on top: This great system couldn’t have been developed by a nicer or more accommodating guy. Igino truly is the Walter Tracy of the digital type era. Type designers who have worked with him know for a fact that we are very lucky to have him.»

Michael Doret

Igino Marini — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 09:24:03 +0000

Michael Doret, Alphabet Soup Type Founders: «I’m fairly new to the font world, only having five designs under my belt. Part of what slows me up is my dread of dealing with spacing and kerning. My friend Stuart Sandler suggested that on my next project I try Igino’s iKern service. I did, and to my shock and amazement my font came back as good or better than I would have done it myself! I will definitely be a return customer. iKern has made the fontmaking process much less forbidding to people like me.»