Letterpunch: Glyph design: the lowercase w and y

o
i
a

b
l
n

c
j
t
y
w
x

k
z

g
s

Just like how you can easily derive ‘p’, ‘d’, and ‘q’ from the ‘b’, and ‘h’, ‘m’, and ‘u’ from the ‘n’, ‘w’ and ‘y’ can be quickly made from the lowercase ‘v’ glyph. Both letters contain the ‘v’ in them, only slightly modified.

Components of a lowercase ‘w’. The ‘w’ is essentially a ligature of two ‘v’s.

The letter ‘w’ can really be thought of as a ligature of two ‘v’s. In fact, in many languages, the name of the letter is “double-v” (English calls the letter “double-u” since when it was invented, ‘u’ and ‘v’ were still the same letter). Because of that, many typefaces render the letter as two slightly overlapping ‘v’s. Like the ‘m’ which is typographically composed of two ‘n’s, the ‘w’ is very slightly compressed (though not to any noticeable extent).

Garamond (left), Sabon (center), and Hoefler (right) all have ‘w’s composed from two ‘v’s.

A few typefaces omit the serif between the ‘v’s, like Minion and Bodoni. Warnock appears to be intermediate. This form generally has much more compression than the ‘vv’ form, usually applied to the outer strokes of the letter.

Bodoni (left) and Minion (center) among others omit the central serif. Warnock (right) is something of a hybrid.

Regardless of which form you choose (for now, Floribunda will take the first), you should remember to take off the ‘v’s radial flaring on the inner strokes. There, radial expansion makes no sense since there are no outer ends, so the inner strokes should have the same thickness all along their length. You may also wish to trim down the middle serif, and try and even out the gaps between the bilateral serifs.

The ‘y’ is slightly more difficult since it has a tail. The tail generally ends in a blob; old style ‘y’s typically have stubbier terminals, while more modern ‘y’s have more well defined teardrop or ball terminals.