Add Zhuque

[davelab6]

Font Project Git Repo URL:

https://github.com/TrionesType/zhuque

Super short description of the Font Family:

New OFL Chinese family

Requirements:

Need to confirm

[eliheuer]

There are no source files yet, but the packager can work on the releases they provide.

The only release so far is a v0.106 that says it is an early beta, so the font might change a bit before v1.000?

I added this to the queue of projects to review for onboarding.

[celestialphineas]

The .glyphspackage and a build script are now included in the source files, together with a new release v0.107. We are currently collecting user feedback during this first month after the beta release, and will update our design referencing the questionnaire statistics. A readme in English is also now available.

[eliheuer]

Thanks! The english readme and sources are helpful, and the AI/ML assisted workflow is very exciting.

[eliheuer]

I very interested in the AI/ML assisted design approach but it looks like there is still work to be done to get professional quality outlines as output. This could have been done with half the points, with smother outlines as a result. All the extra points will also have an impact on file size for the compiled fonts.

There are well defined rules for drawing "good" outlines, why can't ML train on source files with quality outlines and learn how to produce output in a similar style?

This kind of output makes me think the AI/ML work was done with raster graphics that were converted to vector with some kind of auto-trace tool at the end of the process.

[eliheuer]

Also, notice how very similar, almost identical shapes are draw inconsistently:

[celestialphineas]

Hi Eli, thank you for pointing out! At this moment, Zhuque uses a development pipeline heavily relying on bitmap auto-tracing. The state-of-the-art vectorized generation still requires significant human effort afterwards, which is beyond our budget for this project.

Glyphs that are fully hand-drawn by our designer are labeled light green in the .glyphspackage, hopefully providing a useful comparison to the auto-traced results.

We are committed to improving the tracing quality by enhancing the design and adopting more aggressive long-curve optimization strategies, though as for the current feedback, the outline quality seems acceptable to the end users, and remains one of the least concerns.

[aaronbell]

@celestialphineas The CJK review team has had a chance to take a look at Zhuque and wanted to provide feedback. Unfortunately we cannot proceed with onboarding the font at this time.

We rather like the overall look of the design, and it would be beneficial to users to include a font like this in the GF library, but we must agree with Eli's concerns regarding the outline quality. While users definitely wouldn't notice inconsistencies in the outlines at small sizes, we must expect that users will use GF fonts at large sizes as well, where these problems will become obvious.

All that aside, we're also excited by the development of the AI-driven toolchain and the possibilities especially for CJK development. Please continue the work and submit again in the future as the overall outline quality improves!

[aaronbell]

(Sorry @RosaWagner, realized I should let you change the status as necessary on this as I'm not sure how you want to do it)

[celestialphineas]

Hi @aaronbell , we fully understand the review team's concern. TrionesType team also know that Zhuque is still in its early stage, and not production-ready yet. Outline quality is definitely one of the to-do of our team, and we are actively working on solving this problem technically and manually when necessary.