I got both fonts and overlapped them, also adjusting Basilea's default Kerning to fit the Dreamcast's kerning. There are clearly some differences, the r's shoulder being the biggest one and also the D being too tall. But there are slight differences in all characters. So either the font is not actually the same or SEGA did that old trick of having someone redraw the font with slight adjustments so they didn't have to pay licensing fees, like Microsoft did with Arial / Helvetica.
There is one major caveat though, which is that I'm using Wikipedia's Dreamcast logotype, which is a vector SVG file, which I have no idea if it's actually an official vector from SEGA or someone redrew it. I actually compared Wikipedia's logotype to a Dreamcast logo used in a high resolution scan of a Crazi Taxi cover and it seems to fit perfectly, so if it's not actually a perfect Dreamcast logo, it's at least pretty close to fool me.
As is the case with the SEGA font itself, the Dreamcast font really can't be pegged down to one commercially available font. SEGA would either make their own logos based off existing fonts or build their own, which in turn crazy cool SEGA fans would make fonts based on these logos to account for all the letters (such as the Nise fonts site).
So when people say that Tahoma is the Dreamcast font, I think that stems from people incorrectly hearing/reading that the Dreamcast font most closely resembles Tahoma. In the case of this article, Basilea is indeed a better match but is still not perfect. What we would need is somebody to take Basilea and tweak it so it can more closely resemble the Dreamcast font.
Oddly, this was recently done by some Mr. Robot fans. The TV show is famously known for using the SEGA font, which in my own investigating lead me to discover that whoever does design work for Mr. Robot did a designer faux pas and stole the NiseSEGA font - which in itself is a fan made font based on the SEGA logo - and altered the "B". Personally, I think this is bullshit on Mr.Robot's part as they stole fan art and manipulated it for their own means. Basically art theft.
Since then, Mr. Robot fans have taken the NiseSEGA font and altered it to match the Mr. Robot font so as to have a Mr. Robot font family - which isn't so bad given it isn't for profit and it is one fandom altering another fandom font. But to see a tv network doing it for commercial use is kind of bizarre.
Wow. That Mr. Robot situation is weird. And the Wikipedia article doesn't even mention it... slackers. :P
To the unknown above: yeah, custom fonts and all that. It just looks too close to be a coincidence, though. I wonder if they had to talk to anyone or if the could just tweak it and be done?
Thursday, January 28, 2016
Inspired by the recent tenuously-related-to-Dreamcast article (I kid, Tom. :P ) and inspired by a book on different typefaces, I thought about our own lovely Dreamcast:
[Image]
No nonsense, elegant
The logo featured is a simple, elegant one. It doesn't wear on the eyes, unlike certain fonts which will go unmentioned (coughinserthatedfontnameherecough) although extended use might tire one a bit. Still, it would be a nice font to have on hand, just in case.
I assumed that the search would be difficult, as some fonts look almost exactly like each other, and many companies have custom lettering made up for a specific purpose. It would take hours - or at the very least, several minutes.
[Image]
Detective time!
Turns out, nope. There were the false leads of Tahoma, Myriad and Verdana - but even a cursory examination showed this to be false. Fortunately, the site My Fonts came to the rescue, positing the font Basilea (not to be confused with Basilia, a completely different font). Upon downloading the font and trying it myself, I found it to be a 98% match.
[Image]
Lovely, eh Tom?
By way of a little background, all I could discover was a My Fonts' user noting that it was "designed by Markus Low in 1965." Further search reveals that it won the "1965 VGC National Type Face Design Competition."
And there you have it. Another lovely piece of trivia about our beloved console.
posted by B# Major General at 14:14 on 27 Jan 2016
"Fontcast"
3 Comments -
I decided to do some reconnaissance work:
http://i.imgur.com/YubdpSl.png
I got both fonts and overlapped them, also adjusting Basilea's default Kerning to fit the Dreamcast's kerning. There are clearly some differences, the r's shoulder being the biggest one and also the D being too tall. But there are slight differences in all characters. So either the font is not actually the same or SEGA did that old trick of having someone redraw the font with slight adjustments so they didn't have to pay licensing fees, like Microsoft did with Arial / Helvetica.
There is one major caveat though, which is that I'm using Wikipedia's Dreamcast logotype, which is a vector SVG file, which I have no idea if it's actually an official vector from SEGA or someone redrew it. I actually compared Wikipedia's logotype to a Dreamcast logo used in a high resolution scan of a Crazi Taxi cover and it seems to fit perfectly, so if it's not actually a perfect Dreamcast logo, it's at least pretty close to fool me.
Thursday, January 28, 2016
As is the case with the SEGA font itself, the Dreamcast font really can't be pegged down to one commercially available font. SEGA would either make their own logos based off existing fonts or build their own, which in turn crazy cool SEGA fans would make fonts based on these logos to account for all the letters (such as the Nise fonts site).
So when people say that Tahoma is the Dreamcast font, I think that stems from people incorrectly hearing/reading that the Dreamcast font most closely resembles Tahoma. In the case of this article, Basilea is indeed a better match but is still not perfect. What we would need is somebody to take Basilea and tweak it so it can more closely resemble the Dreamcast font.
Oddly, this was recently done by some Mr. Robot fans. The TV show is famously known for using the SEGA font, which in my own investigating lead me to discover that whoever does design work for Mr. Robot did a designer faux pas and stole the NiseSEGA font - which in itself is a fan made font based on the SEGA logo - and altered the "B". Personally, I think this is bullshit on Mr.Robot's part as they stole fan art and manipulated it for their own means. Basically art theft.
Since then, Mr. Robot fans have taken the NiseSEGA font and altered it to match the Mr. Robot font so as to have a Mr. Robot font family - which isn't so bad given it isn't for profit and it is one fandom altering another fandom font. But to see a tv network doing it for commercial use is kind of bizarre.
Thursday, January 28, 2016
Wow. That Mr. Robot situation is weird. And the Wikipedia article doesn't even mention it... slackers. :P
To the unknown above: yeah, custom fonts and all that. It just looks too close to be a coincidence, though. I wonder if they had to talk to anyone or if the could just tweak it and be done?
Thursday, January 28, 2016