Hello,
I am working on a new SMuFL font to try to recreate the style of German publishing houses, for example Breitkopf & Härtel and Henle. I particularly want it to look bolder and blacker than most fonts to imitate the ink spread in printed scores. I call it Brighthead as a loose pun for Breitkopf, although the style leans more to that of Henle.
This is the first time I tried font design (actually general graphic design) and in a couple of days I was able to draw some basic glyphs that meets my needs (scores for solo piano) at least. The glyphs are based on Sebastian and Bettenhoven, both under OFL license. For missing glyphs I use Sebastian for now. The font can be found on GitHub: https://github.com/atzlt/brighthead.
The following is an page from an (unpublished) original composition of mine, engraved using this font. (All glyphs appearing in this page, except the braces and plain texts, are included in the font. I also included a slanted G clef (at character '&'), which can be found in older scores.) Any feedback and tips on the design is welcomed!
Example (from an original composition of mine).png (49.28 KiB) Viewed 686 times
atzlt wrote: 17 Aug 2026, 06:51
I particularly want it to look bolder and blacker than most fonts to imitate the ink spread in printed scores.
Please, don't
Anyway Bravura beat you to it!
Seriously though, I guess I get why people want to emulate that style but I see that as a major flaw. I mean, I'm willing to bet that if they had the tech to NOT have the ink spread, they would have preferred that. I've always assumed that engraving plates get worn somewhat with repeated printings, and ink maybe starts to collect in the depressions over time, or cleaning the plates to get rid of that will also wear the edges - such that things get less clear and crisp the more plates are used…they would probably prefer that not to have happened either.
But I do see the fun in creating your own font too - and you have to start somewhere as a reference so that's cool. I wish I had the ability to do it.
And the others here can really help you refine it based on what I've seen around here.
So despite my tastes being different, good luck on making this look good and having a usable font!
odod wrote: 18 Aug 2026, 04:41
it's a bit choppy in Musescore
Unfortunately I currently have no idea why this is happening. I might investigate it further if I have more spare time ...
LSL2026 wrote: 18 Aug 2026, 05:28
Please, don't
...
So despite my tastes being different, good luck on making this look good and having a usable font!
Thank you for pointing out! I might be using the wrong word, I'm not very familiar with traditional engraving methods, but I do think even for digitally produced scores, ink printed one look blacker than laser printed ones, and I prefer the former. It feels more "authentic". I like Bravura, but using it feels like using Helvetica or Times new Roman in a book - it's genuinely good but doesn't the character. I also prefer Henle's clefs and a narrower notehead. And yes, a large part of this font is simply because it's fun!
Seriously though, I guess I get why people want to emulate that style but I see that as a major flaw. I mean, I'm willing to bet that if they had the tech to NOT have the ink spread, they would have preferred that. I've always assumed that engraving plates get worn somewhat with repeated printings, and ink maybe starts to collect in the depressions over time, or cleaning the plates to get rid of that will also wear the edges - such that things get less clear and crisp the more plates are used…they would probably prefer that not to have happened either.
I'm not sure that our forebears were as primitive as you make them out to be. It was certainly possible to make hand-engraved scores that were super-light, and I've seen a few examples of that, but they were rare specifically because it's much easier to read strong, dark print in stressful situations, in poor lighting, or from a distance. Additionally, offset lithography would have already eliminated the "wear" issue you talk about.
Music is already made up primarily of rounded shapes - I think arbitrarily sharp-edged symbols and text in the computer era will always clash with that.
I'm not sure that our forebears were as primitive as you make them out to be.
I'm going off some of my Schirmer scores where all the beams have bled together among other things!
I would guess these were much more defined in earlier printings and something happened along the way to make this particular copy more "ink spready" - not all of my Schirmer scores are this way but I've got a Beethoven Piano Sonatas collection that's pretty bad - though it could just be the paper and not the plates - one of those books - they were all glue bound I guess - one of them basically has split apart at the binding and had sections of pages come unglued - the paper has yellowed and even the outer cover was more "plastic-y" than it was paper-y - so it may have just been a budget edition or a period in the 70s when they were being made cheaply or something.
atzlt wrote: 18 Aug 2026, 07:00
ink printed one look blacker than laser printed ones, and I prefer the former. It feels more "authentic".
I get what you're saying - I never liked inkjet printers for that very reason - but as I was just saying in another response, paper quality makes a difference too. But yeah, I prefer the crisp lines of a laser printer - I mean, black is black, and it's just as dark - it's less fuzzy around the edges so I think the other comes off "ever so slightly bolder" because it's ever so slightly extending beyond the edges - but it is true that for a reader reading from a stand, bigger is easier to see!
All of my students and most of my colleagues are reading from screens now, so it would be an interesting research project to see if they want to emulate that older look even though they're not using paper anymore - do they still want fuzzy symbols that look like they're on paper - or would they like "screen reader clarity" like what's happened with fonts in the book publishing world???
But TBH, my eyes are steadily aging, so EVERYTHING looks soft around the edges now!!!!!!
Finale 27.5 • Sibelius 2026.2• MuseScore 4+ • Logic Pro X+ • Ableton Live 12+ • Digital Performer 11 /// MacOS Monterey (secondary in use systems: Fedora 35, Windows 10)
LSL2026 wrote: 18 Aug 2026, 05:28
Seriously though, I guess I get why people want to emulate that style but I see that as a major flaw. I mean, I'm willing to bet that if they had the tech to NOT have the ink spread, they would have preferred that.
John Baskerville developed paper-making techniques to reduce ink spread, allowing his type to be very fine. Although his work was applauded by some; it was at least as widely criticized by his contemporaries for being too sharp, too crisp, too thin. Some even claimed it "damaged the eyes"!
