While the natural spacing of the “o,p,b” (6) allows for optimal repetition of the bowl forms and their respective spacing to the adjacent stems, the last “o” would not, as aligning it to the grid in the same way would have made the “b-o” spacing appear too loose. Spacing letters can be very difficult when adhering the shapes to such a coarse grid. In small rasterized type, overshoot is best executed with grey pixels (3). In typography, this method of visual compensation is called overshoot. Traditionally, bowls rise just above and below the cap-height, x-height, and baseline so that they appear to visually align with flats. At actual size (in use), these grey pixels blend with the black and take on the illusion of smooth form.

The diagonals of the “x” are a good example of this, and require grey pixels to properly illustrate. Although the goal in rasterization is to align as much of the artwork as possible exactly to the pixel grid while maintaining the appearance of the original, some forms will never align cleanly.

The pixels of the logomark were made to align perfectly with the vertical metrics (1), and the vertical metrics were made to align to distinct pixel rows (1) (4) (5). The grid is ever present, and all typographic form must adhere to this paradigm. Rasterizing type for small sizes is a unique and interesting challenge.

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