NOTATIO

Whatever I previously said was the hardest thing in the world, I take it back.

The hardest thing in the world is drawing a treble clef using bezier curves.

Ugh. Any tips? Suggestions?

Not only is the Treble clef hard to draw with Bezier curves, it's the hardest, period. Keep practicing. You'll get better.

I've developed a few strategies over the years, which remain pretty consistent across styles. The one thing my "strategies" can't do for you, though, is give you a better "eye" for smooth curves. Here are a few general tips when doing font design:

• Make all curve handles horizontal or vertical, wherever possible. There will be places where it doesn't make sense to do this.
• Use as few on-curve points as makes sense. This will make curve-matching easier since you'll have fewer places to do it.
• If you are struggling getting smooth transitions, try removing the troublesome on-curve point (by combining the two curves together) and then add the split the longer curve back into two. This will make for really excellent transitions, but isn't always possible.
• Balance the handle lengths of each curve. This gives both a similar amount of control with neither dominating the curve.
• After you like the general shape, flip the glyph upside down. This will give your eyes a chance to stop seeing the treble clef as a whole and you'll notice smaller inconsistencies that should be fixed to give it that last golden touch.

That should do for now. Good luck!

P.S. If you're willing, it might be helpful to get some feedback by posting some screenshots of the work in progress so others here can give feedback. You're always welcome to PM me as well.

Making a font, Dan...?

Not only is it one of the hardest, it's also one of the first things you're likely to try. Tracing the outline of a scanned image will help, though it's hard to get hi-res enough scans, given the spongey nature of ink-engraving.

Great tips from Abraham as always

Though a beginner with designing treble clef here my tip:
study the available Fonts
Load several G-Clefs in layers of your Font program in order to compare what the font designer did.

I posted a svg (which can be loaded in a font program) of my take on Saties handwritten key in this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=339&p=8439#top

I tried there to follow Abrahams tips.

Before you play it, you must sing it!
©2021 by NorFonts.ma

Made from scratch.

After 10 minutes of tweaks it becomes this:
©2021 by NorFonts.ma

I'm using FL7, maybe the process of making/tweaking it would be so quick using Glyphs application. You will need only to play with few nodes, and then balance and harmonize them to match the engraving G treble clef. The straight descending stroke could be curved anyway.

Adjusted inside the staff: ©2021 by NorFonts.ma


Adding little weight to it: ©2021 by NorFonts.ma


I don't believe that there is any fix rules for making an engraver treble clef, eyes are your judge, but Bézier is a tool that helps a lot. Maybe we could try the Golden ratio?!

I forgot to mention that I followed/used the same approach to design Soli and Tutti fonts. Starting from scratch is the solution, there is no need to pick another font and start tracing it, because when you cook it yourself, it gets better flavor and taste, it become orignal.

That’s a nice treble clef...