b612

French + fonts = B612 @ https://github.com/polarsys/b612

> Apparently, the link to Intactile DESIGN - intactile[dot]com - in the README file is now redirecting to a gambling site, probably due to Intactile going out of business? https://github.com/polarsys/b612/issues/37

Designed for ease and efficiency of reading and to make letters unambiguous by "maximising the distances between forms to allow for easy, clear identification of each character" [0, p. 7]. Compare FE-Schrift [1], which is designed for number plates to make letters unambiguous in the sense of hard to convert one into another by masking or adding parts: [0] https://github.com/polarsys/b612/blob/master/docs/B612-Leafl... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FE-Schrift

There is a PDF and a PNG in the docs/ folder (https://github.com/polarsys/b612/tree/master/docs), too.

The leaflet (https://github.com/polarsys/b612/blob/master/docs/B612-Leafl...) explains the design thinking behind this. They call them "light traps", though I'm not totally convinced they work well when antialiasing is used.

It seems far too deliberate not to be so. Wonder about the reason too. Maybe dual-use with printouts? Edit: I found their reasoning: "Moreover, activity analysis has highlighted possible impairment in reading context: variations of light and viewing angle, high cognitive load for the pilot etc� So, B612 has created a concept of increased legibility of shape for less ideal situations and associated methods of mark corrections, to optimise the final rendering of the text and on-screen reading, particularly with the use of incises and ‘light-traps’ . An incise is a small serif which interrupts the regularity of the vertical line: here it allows to accentuate the clarity of the leading stroke (top part) of the vertical stem 8 to avoid it being rounded off when antialiasing. The principle of ‘ink traps’ has existed as long as typography has: i

There is actually a sample in the repo: https://github.com/polarsys/b612/blob/master/docs/sample.png.

It's funny, though, there's literally an example of this in the picture located on the ENAC project page for this font in the flight plan screen: https://lii.enac.fr/projects/definition-and-validation-of-an... Also seems to be more discussion of this point the last time this was posted: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37519166 It also seems like there's a "slashed zero" glyph in the font, though I don't know how to actually type it: https://github.com/polarsys/b612/blob/master/sources/ufo/B61...

Sample: https://github.com/polarsys/b612/blob/master/docs/sample.png

Found a git issue that indicates the slashed 0 is in private use area of the font https://github.com/polarsys/b612/issues/20#issuecomment-5448... To answer the grandparent, unslashed 0s are used in numerical figures (speed, pressure) while slashed 0s are reserved for the alphanumeric figures (headings and other idenitifers)

Even the font's designers were unable to contribute due to a lack of merge rights, since they weren't elected by the Eclipse foundation. https://github.com/polarsys/b612/issues/10#issuecomment-4719... The only user who's demonstrated merge rights on the repo is the repo's Eclipse Foundation project lead, Laurent Spaggiari: https://projects.eclipse.org/content/laurent-spaggiari-proje... Who's the only listed contributor on the repo: https://github.com/polarsys/b612/blob/master/CONTRIBUTORS.tx... And who's been publicly inactive on GitHub since the repo's last merge in March 2019: https://github.com/LaurentSpaggiari?tab=overview&from=2019-0... I don't think any amount of tooling knowledge could facilitate a contribution at this point. It's a dead project. The best anyone could do is apply the steps in issue #24 to a fork and start promoting

It’s very unfortunate that these glyphs are not available via OT features or font-variant in CSS. I assume the cockpit software uses glyphs directly instead of using OpenType. There are two open tickets about it, the second is almost four years old, maybe someone here who is familiar with the tooling could contribute? https://github.com/polarsys/b612/issues/24 https://github.com/polarsys/b612/issues/20#issuecomment-5448...

* https://github.com/polarsys/b612/issues/20

Still my favourite: https://github.com/blobject/agave Here's another company font: https://github.com/polarsys/b612