Announcing the Jonstown Compendium: a community content resource for RuneQuest and Greg Stafford's World of Glorantha on DriveThruRPG

[RandomNumber]

30 minutes ago, Nick Brooke said:

You'll also want to install the Albertus MT Standard font if you're using Chaosium's Word template - it isn't showing up in your screenshot on the left.

Many thanks Nick - greatly appreciated

[soltakss]

3 hours ago, Nick Brooke said:

Finally, please remember that you can change the Chaosium templates as much or as little as you like for your own publications.

Which is what I really didn't understand when creating my first Jonstown Compendium title.

It was pointed out to me, by a really nice and helpful ambassador, that having mismatched titles and keeping them small didn't work that well, so I gave them all the Rune font and made them bigger to stand out more. Then I changed a lot of other things to get a consistent look and feel for my titles.

That's the beauty of the templates, you can make all the titles different and still have them look similar enough to be recognisably the same product line.

[Nick Brooke]

I keep trying new things. I'm very fond of the Ignacious font I used for headings in Glamour & Life of Moonson, and we think that mixing it up with slightly funky Roman-style caps in Citizens (which were done in Jupiter with some alternate letterforms and ligatures) worked nicely. For my own scenarios I'm sticking with Atlantis & Atlantis Grunge (as seen in the RQG core rulebook): those are Dangerford & the forthcoming Black Spear. I've enjoyed experimenting with navigational aids at the edges of pages. I use fonts Jon Webb chose for the Sandheart books: Algerian for book titles, and Albertus MT Standard for headers.

I think the Chaosium template's title header font is poorly chosen, so I almost never use it myself. (It's scratchy and hard to read, and their suggested point size is way smaller than I would choose). But I was trained in layout by the late, great Steve Thomas, and know that section headings can't be too big.

"Glamour," on this page, is 72-pt. The headings below are 24-pt and 14-pt, and the body text is the standard 11-pt.

 

[Nick Brooke]

This title is a more typical (for me) 48-pt, with the strapline under in 14-pt.

[soltakss]

23 hours ago, soltakss said:

It was pointed out to me, by a really nice and helpful ambassador, that having mismatched titles and keeping them small didn't work that well, so I gave them all the Rune font and made them bigger to stand out more.

It was also pointed out by Bill the Barbarian, at an early stage in the process, so thanks to Bill and Nick.

[RandomNumber]

On 5/1/2021 at 10:49 PM, Nick Brooke said:

This title is a more typical (for me) 48-pt, with the strapline under in 14-pt.

I see what you mean… I discovered on Sunday afternoon that playing around with fonts and styles is a procrastinator’s heaven. Not much material written but I get an experience roll in Love (Fonts) 

Dare I test the relationship by enquiring what the specifications are for the shades of green used in the tables?…

 

Edited May 3, 2021 by RandomNumber

[Nick Brooke]

29 minutes ago, RandomNumber said:

Dare I treat the relationship by enquiring what the specifications are for the shades of green used in the tables?…

Sure, I’ll take a look after breakfast.

The Kama Sutra for anyone who loves fonts and layout is Robert Bringhurst’s magnificent grimoire “The Elements of Typographic Style.” It’s a kabbalistic feast for the eyes.

UPDATED:

The green rows of this table are (top down):

• LOCATION: R 61, G 135, B 126 = #3d877e
• Right Leg: R 229, G 234, B 233 = #e5eae9
• Left Leg: R 190, G 206, B 204 = #bececc 

The font is Trebuchet MS, 10 pt bold small caps for the header row and 9pt for the body rows.

Was that what you needed?

Edited May 3, 2021 by Nick Brooke

[RandomNumber]

That’s wonderful, thank you.  My knowledge is complete (not really…)

[Ian A. Thomson]

This might be the place to ask. I have a vague awareness that some fonts can't be used commercially and some can. I'm going to have a look online now to see if I can sort out some options (just for the headers and title really) for the Rough Guide to Pavis City Directors' Cut. Anyway, wondering if anyone has already put together a list of interesting looking fonts that can be used in the fan-produced Gloranthan publications?

[Brian Duguid]

Best place to ask that one is the Jonstown Compendium Creator's Circle group over on Facebook. There are a few fonts that are popular and/or match what is used in official Chaosium RQG publications  (I've just stuck a load of Atlantis Grunge into the headers on the book I'm working on), and cost for a license is generally not excessive.

[soltakss]

10 hours ago, Brian Duguid said:

Best place to ask that one is the Jonstown Compendium Creator's Circle group over on Facebook.

I don't think that Ian is on Facebook.

 

[Nick Brooke]

Please check the licenses for any fonts you're using in community content. Publishing via the Jonstown Compendium is a commercial activity; most font licenses allow this (e.g. a license for the Atlantis font - mentioned above - lets you use it in unlimited commercial and personal digital and print products). You'll find that a lot of font licensing language is actually designed to stop you distributing or reselling the font itself, rather than restricting what you can do with it in output.

Sometimes free / demo font licenses are more restrictive (e.g. a free version of the Atlantis font is licensed for personal use only, and clearly you shouldn't use that on the Jonstown Compendium). But the whole suite costs just $12, so if you really want to emulate Chaosium's header style, it's not expensive.

If you aren't on Facebook, you're missing out on some of our best community content resources. Which is fine: that's your choice, and I respect it.