Mana Symbols in Vector

[proud]

One thing that has bothered me that few people have noticed is the colorless mana symbols have changed. The text on the numbers is a little bit thicker. (You can see this very easily on the 1.)

Here is Tribal Flames, from INV, TSB, DDE, MMA and MM2 (LQ):

Tribal Flames

Here is a close up of Mind Rot, from 7ED and DTK:

Mind Rot

2-comparison.png (20.68 KiB) Viewed 18290 times

I’ve looked at Plantin and I haven’t found a heavier type version that doesn’t change the physical shape of the characters. It really looks like Wizards may have just added a stroke onto the number (to make it stand out better).

I’ll throw together some new colorless mana symbols in the next few days.

[skibulk]

Interesting. Have you checked all sets to determine if any other fonts were used? I assume the change only applies to 8ED cards?

In Apocalypse, the "MagicSymbols" font was used. In New Phyrexia, the "MTGSymb8-Regular" was used.

[proud]

Interesting. Have you checked all sets to determine if any other fonts were used? I assume the change only applies to 8ED cards?

In Apocalypse, the "MagicSymbols" font was used. In New Phyrexia, the "MTGSymb8-Regular" was used.

I am not personally familiar with these fonts. I assume they weren’t made by Wizards?

[skibulk]

well I assume the numbers were extracted from a completely different font.

If you can make both the 8ED transparent symbols (also , and ) and the 8ED normal symbols using the updated numbers, that would be great.

[proud]

skibulk, thanks for the font!

You’re right, this font seems to have the correct weights.

I’ve put together some PNGs of the colorless numbers, which I believe are exactly correct. The tap symbol and X are likely correct, though I haven’t spent the time to compare them with greater detail.

[skibulk]

By transparent, I mean with a 25% opacity black circle (see our discussion a few posts back). Basically 8ED and Mirrodin Block used these transparent symbols. All future sets used opaque circles.

Don't forget that some of the Eldrazi used 11, 12, and 20 symbols. So ideally, 0-20 should be created with opaque symbols.

Please post your vectors too.

[Nyth]

@proud: Have you been able to identify when, in terms of Magic set printings, the font weight change occured?

[proud]

By transparent, I mean with a 25% opacity black circle (see our discussion a few posts back). Basically 8ED and Mirrodin Block used these transparent symbols. All future sets used opaque circles.

Don't forget that some of the Eldrazi used 11, 12, and 20 symbols. So ideally, 0-20 should be created with opaque symbols.

Please post your vectors too.

Do you know the source of this font? I can play around with the numbers a little, but the glyphs in 11-20 use a further modified version. This may take some time. However, I can make a transparent version and I should be able to put together a vector version as time allows.

@Nyth: With the modern frames, 8th Edition and Mirrodin. The most obvious is with the 1 colorless mana symbol.

[skibulk]

I extracted that font from the 8ED Basic Rulebook PDF.

[Nyth]

@Nyth: With the modern frames, 8th Edition and Mirrodin. The most obvious is with the 1 colorless mana symbol.

I'll pull out cards from different sets and try and figure out when the change occured.

[h0razon]

For those who are interested, I just created a quick CSS file around this SVG.
Unfortunately I have just registered, so I can't post links. The project can be found on GitHub searching "mana-cost", the repository name is "micku/mana-cost".

I hope this can be of any help.

Goblin Hero: tell me if you want some change regarding credits about your work.

[aeos]

Hi, I would also like to use these symbols in my open source project, but the lack of a license is a bit awkward. Can we get a license added to this (preferably creative commons CC0), so that it's explicitly clear that these files are free to use? I need this to be free for both me and my users.

You might say that WOTC holds the copyright, and IANAL, but this seems like a derivative work, which gives the creators of the derivative the copyright (copyrights are given automatically to completed works; you don't have to apply for one).

Thanks!

[skibulk]

Attached the Colorless Mana Symbol from Oath of the Gatewatch. What is the text code for it? {c}?

...this seems like a derivative work...

Derivative Work: The transformation, modification or adaptation of the work must be substantial and bear its author's personality to be original and thus protected by copyright.

[kudit]

It should be {C} though we'll know for sure once Matt's release notes hit.

[jenjia]

This is really excellent work. I'm combining some of these with the symbols found in the freely available Magic symbol fonts (MTG2011, Magic Symbols 2012 Z) to make a more complete font. Does anyone know where I might find vector versions of the following?

The Odyssey era tombstone symbol
The guild symbols
The remaining card type symbols (other than planeswalker)
The Inquest purple mana symbol (I've tried recreating it, but it's so-so)

I'm most after the tombstone symbol, but I'd appreciate any pointers to other material. The Inquest purple mana symbol is basically impossible to find, but I think it's just a + that's been twirled a bit.

A couple of notes:

The numbers in the numeric mana costs do not seem heavy enough to me. I've used the existing numbers in the MTG 2011 font in preference to the ones found in the SVG file.

The million symbol seems out of proportion to me. The number is not condensed as it appears on the card. I could be missing something here, though. I am not saying I could do any better, but Goblin Hero did mention he was striving for accuracy.

--

Anyway, thought I'd share what I have so far. It comes with an HTML file that shows you how to combine the glyphs to create mana symbols.

Any way we could have the new symbol on this font?
Thanks