Consider adding ampersand character variant

[OJFord]

Firstly, thank you for Iosevka! It's a great font to begin with, but to be able to fine-tune characters to personal taste is amazing.

In that vein, I'd like to request a character variant for the ampersand, &, to appear more like an 'et' ligature (as in e.g. Trebuchet MS) or at least more 'open' (as in e.g. DejaVu).

[akarzim]

Issue #140 has been closed without taking into account this ampersand character variant, so I propose some variants much closer to an Et ligature and based on the reversed 3 and Ƹ characters (ezh U+01B8). Each variant is proposed without and with ligature.

[akarzim]

FWIW I like the BPmono one too :)

[throwaway571]

@be5invis You may not have gotten this notification, because the issue is closed, so I’m tagging you. The main ampersand glyph variants are the one from Menlo with an open top loop, and the closed et-like glyph from Fira Code. I’m not sure whether the glyphs from @akarzim’s posts are readable as ampersands, especially at low sizes, but I’ll leave it to your consideration.

[AndydeCleyre]

Copying over from my comment on the topic in the original issue:

Here's a mockup of another &, based on U+01B8 (Latin capital letter ezh reversed, Ƹ). It would maybe make more sense to base it on a rounder character, like U+0190 (Latin capital letter open E, Ɛ).

And adding a similar mockup based on U+0190 (Latin capital letter open E, Ɛ):

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I must say, that BPmono one is an attractive figure, though I might have trouble mentally accepting it as an ampersand.

[be5invis]

This is the first variant that will be assigned to CVAH (original will be CVAG)

[AndydeCleyre]

The existing Iosevka ampersand curve is beautiful, and I think better than any of the mockups so far would be the current ampersand modified, with the top closed loop left intact, and the bottom one opened up at at the right-side exit from the top loop -- similar to @akarzim BPmono example.

I don't know exactly what should be done with the bottom right in this case, but this mockup will at least show how nice the top loop looks when detached from the right bottom:

I might go for a short capital T style like in my previous mockups, but I'm really not very handy with art tools, and will try to spare this thread from any future attempts on my part.

[OJFord]

@be5invis Would it be possible also to have one more like an 'Ɛt' conjunct/ligature? i.e. as you posted but without the diagonal; with crossed 't' and tail?

[be5invis]

@OJFord I plan to

[be5invis]

Here is the third one, Fira-styled ampersand.

[wimstefan]

Copying over from my comment on the topic in the original issue:

Here's a mockup of another &, based on U+01B8 (Latin capital letter ezh reversed, Ƹ). It would maybe make more sense to base it on a rounder character, like U+0190 (Latin capital letter open E, Ɛ).

The straight top bar looks fantastic! That would go very well with the Fraktur-like Eszet (v-eszet-traditional, cv34) that I'm using already :)

[throwaway571]

@be5invis I’d suggest that the bottom right of the Fira ampersand should vary along with G, and have a vertical spur when cv91 is activated.

[AndydeCleyre]

The straight top bar looks fantastic!

I agree, it looks pretty great. Certainly better than the Ɛ-based one I submitted, and also IMO better than the new official ones introduced so far in this thread. So I guess it's my favorite here.

But I think there's something beautiful not yet realized in the potential of keeping the original &'s top loop, if the rest can somehow make it look et/ET/Et-ish, and also not too much like 8. That's tough. I guess if the top loop's intact, that's closer to a e than an E, but relative to the normal letter it's rather sideways, and the bottom is unhinged like a snake's jaw . . . Alright I know I said I'd try to spare everyone from any more of my sloppy mockups, but I'm hereby failing that goal. Here are some trying to preserve the top loop.

Inward straight:

Inward curved:

Inward curved with inward hat (maybe bad because it looks like a G, though it's nice and more distinct from an 8 than the previous two):

Inward curved with centered hat (hat may be too long, and maybe it would be much better if the hat were curved to match the central curve of the glyph):

Now I'll really really try not to post any more mockups here. Thank you.

[be5invis]

I'd like to do this:

• VXAG for current, closed ampersand;
• VXAH for the open ampersand;
• VXAI for the tailless Ɛt;
• VXAJ for the tailed Ɛt (has a lower tail like G under cv91)
• VXAK might be something unique. Not decided yet.

[wimstefan]

Let's hope that the straight top bar will make it to VXAK 😉

[be5invis]

This is the 4th.

[be5invis]

And this is the fifth

[wimstefan]

I'm still hoping for the straight top bar variant ... ;-)

[akarzim]

I love the fifth! (the one in the middle) This variant seems to be an excellent candidate for an elegant && ligature.
However, ligation with other variants may also be possible.

[be5invis]

But do we really need ligation for &&? Especially for VXAG and VXAH?
Again type design is not a ligature race.

[be5invis]

And here is VXAL

[be5invis]

Close as fixed.

[wimstefan]

This looks really fantastic!!! Thank you so much for being so cooperative and always trying to fulfill strange user requests 🙏