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Topic: Would you use uppercase only fonts if you had a choice? (Read 610 times)
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Kitsune Sniper
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« on: November 19, 2007, 02:08:43 pm » |
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Strange way to start a topic, but this is something that's been on my mind a bit.
I'm currently messing with Sengoku on the SNES, and there's enough space in the game to fit a full uppercase and lowercase English alphabet. But I'm considering inserting an uppercase-only font instead.
If you had a choice, would you go for an uppercase-only font? I mean, if it was for style reasons, not because of space limitations. I know some people consider uppercase-only fonts as a SCREAMING EVERYTHING AT YOU, but remember, early games only had uppercase fonts to begin with.
Any thoughts?
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Lenophis
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« Reply #1 on: November 19, 2007, 02:21:25 pm » |
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If you had a choice, would you go for an uppercase-only font? Quite plain and simple, no. It's an eye-strain. |
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satsu
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« Reply #2 on: November 19, 2007, 02:26:42 pm » |
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Any thoughts?
If it looks like a game that'd be all in caps and you want it to have that kind of "authenticity", go for it. I mean, the things romhackers have been able to do like pretty variable-width fonts for games that would never have gotten that luxury have been pretty awesome, but do you need a 4-colour variable-width font with automatic shadow to display "HI SCORE 000000"? (I know that the game you mentioned is a bit more complicated than that, but you know what I mean here.) |
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creaothceann
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« Reply #3 on: November 19, 2007, 04:18:53 pm » |
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With the lowercase characters included you can always switch between both styles.
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Nightcrawler
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« Reply #4 on: November 19, 2007, 04:29:41 pm » |
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In general, I'd say always add lowercase if possible. It just makes it easier to read. Being easier to read is the primary goal when it comes to text. If your game has a little text as say Super Mario Brothers, it doesn't really matter. However, something with substantial text should have lowercase. I don't think I'd ever purposely choose uppercase only. HONESTLY. DO YOU REALLY THINK IT LOOKS BETTER AND IS EASIER TO READ? FOR A FEW LINES, IT PROBABLY DOESN'T MAKE MUCH DIFFERENCE, BUT IF YOU START GETTING INTO PARAGRAPHS AND LONGER PASSAGES OF TEXT, IT WILL INCREASINGLY BECOME MORE ANNOYING AND DIFFICULT TO READ. AESTHETICALLY SPEAKING, IT'S ALSO UGLIER IN MY OPINION, HOWEVER THAT'S CERTAINLY AN ARGUABLE POINT. THE REASON OLD GAMES ONLY HAD UPPERCASE WAS USUALLY ALWAYS DUE TO TECHNICAL CONSTRAINTS. YOU DON'T SEE ANY NEW GAMES RELEASED TODAY FOR ANY SYSTEM WITH UPPERCASE ONLY FONTS, DO YOU? THERE IS GOOD REASON LOWERCASE FONTS BECAME STANDARD IN ALL VIDEO GAMES RELEASED IN ENGLISH. BOO TO UPPERCASE ONLY, YELLING OR NO YELLING.  |
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Kitsune Sniper
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« Reply #5 on: November 19, 2007, 04:36:53 pm » |
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I don't think I'd ever purposely choose uppercase only. It's one thing to have them in textboxes; but it's another when the game is showing the text on top of other images without a suitable background. http://vice.parodius.com/sengoku/Take a look at the text in the third screenshot (lower left corner). That's how the game shows its intro in the unhacked game; and it's a PAIN IN THE ASS to read. I had to remove the background just to get clear shots of the text when I asked for it to get translated (I hadn't figured out how the game stored certain things back when I requested a translation.) I tried several uppercase and lowercase fonts, and it just didn't look right no matter what font I chose. I think it's because of that Shogun's poor taste in clothes. The ending and credit sequences are just as bad, but the background is constantly changing colors in that case. I'd prefer to have someone screaming out the ending at me than not being able to read it. Oh - the only places in which English is used in the game are the end credits, game options, and the score / high score tables. And it uses the same font that's in that gameplay screenshot. I'm probably going to use the Sengoku 2 font I just ripped and uploaded at the site, not sure yet. |
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RadioShadow
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« Reply #6 on: November 19, 2007, 06:18:25 pm » |
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IF the game hardly has any text, you can just get away with upper fonts. Super Mario Bro's being a a perfect example: 'THE PRINCESS IS IN ANOTHER CASTLE."
But a game with lot's of text, try and add lower cases to the font. I think it really just depends on the game because some you can get away with it while others you can't.
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Numonohi_Boi
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« Reply #7 on: November 19, 2007, 06:58:52 pm » |
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I write with a pencil with an extremely stylized all caps font. If it was a plain fault it would look butt ugly, BUT, if you used a really stylized caps font it could look pretty slick
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Nightcrawler
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« Reply #8 on: November 20, 2007, 09:01:59 am » |
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I don't think I'd ever purposely choose uppercase only. It's one thing to have them in textboxes; but it's another when the game is showing the text on top of other images without a suitable background. http://vice.parodius.com/sengoku/Take a look at the text in the third screenshot (lower left corner). That's how the game shows its intro in the unhacked game; and it's a PAIN IN THE ASS to read. I had to remove the background just to get clear shots of the text when I asked for it to get translated (I hadn't figured out how the game stored certain things back when I requested a translation.) I tried several uppercase and lowercase fonts, and it just didn't look right no matter what font I chose. I think it's because of that Shogun's poor taste in clothes. The ending and credit sequences are just as bad, but the background is constantly changing colors in that case. I'd prefer to have someone screaming out the ending at me than not being able to read it. Oh - the only places in which English is used in the game are the end credits, game options, and the score / high score tables. And it uses the same font that's in that gameplay screenshot. I'm probably going to use the Sengoku 2 font I just ripped and uploaded at the site, not sure yet. My opinion hasn't changed. I still think it will be easier to read. Hell, you can do word recognition with upper and lowercase letters and don't even actually need to be able to read all the letters to pick it up in your brain. Another better option is to hack (or get someone else to hack) an 8x16 font in there. It will definitely be much more readable being larger. |
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Numonohi_Boi
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« Reply #9 on: November 20, 2007, 10:53:41 am » |
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or you could just go crazy and cap the first letter in every word  |
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DarknessSavior
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« Reply #10 on: November 20, 2007, 01:29:36 pm » |
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I personally think that in the modern age of hacking, we can get beyond the all uppercase font. But, I also believe that in certain cases there are exceptions. In a game that has no more than a few sentences of text but has stats and stuff on display, all uppercase can sometimes be done. But if you even think about putting all uppercase in an RPG, I will have to kill you.
Erhm. If I had a choice, I'd never use an all caps font.
~DS
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KingMike
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« Reply #11 on: November 20, 2007, 02:04:11 pm » |
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Going to have to use an all-caps font for Galaxy Oddyssey for FDS, when I get back to it.
I need as small a character set as possible to bit-pack all the text into the tiny amount of space I have.
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Kajitani-Eizan
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« Reply #12 on: November 20, 2007, 02:15:13 pm » |
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use an outline or shadow?
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