Design criteriaI developed the system according to the following criteria:
- Uniqueness
- Recognizability
- Related to the Bitcoin symbol
- Recognizable as currency symbol
- Simple
- Translate well to other fonts (like other currency symbols)
- Functionality with Unicode
- Must work extremely small and extremely large
- Must be expandable
First I designed the glyphs, starting with the small “b”. From this I developed the “n”, from this the “m” and finally the capital “S”. For “millibit” as well as for “milliSat” I constructed ligatures with the “mb” and the “mS”. The “m” and the “b” are lowercase letters, because they do not have a whole proper name, i.e. they are word combinations, whereas Bitcoin and Satoshi are proper nouns. That’s why I chose the capital letter for the “S” for Satoshi.
On the following posts, you see a documentation how I constructed them.
Bitcoin Logo
This is the original Bitcoin-logo. I wasn’t able to find it as a vector file, so I had vectorize it. When I was doing so, I found some design flaws, that really stressed me.
- The slim bow which goes from the serif to the upper and the lower B-bow weren‘t in a line (you can see the corner where the serif meets the first line of the vertical currency line) the line from the serif wasn‘t continuously and
- The two short currency lines weren‘t at the same high as the inner line from the inner space of the two empty spaces from the B.
- Also the radius where the serifs and the vertical line of the B meet weren‘t the same. I just corrected this here.
You find the corrected version of the Bitcoin-Sign also available for download.
Millibit Logo
This is how I constructed the ligature for the millibit logo:
- The “b” is the same as for the bit logo. I put the “m” in front of the “b” and connected it to the “b” so that it merges into one glyph.
- The oblique line at the serif, as well as the rounded corners have the same size and radius as for the “b”.
- The inner serifs of the “n” are 4/11 narrower so that the “m” does not appear heavier than the lowercase “b”.
- The upper curves of the “m” are the same height as the upper curve of the belly of the “b”.
- The upper serif has the same length as the outer serifs of the “m”.
- The lower serif, according to the concept that only the lowest left serif has a slanting section and because it is a serif within the letter, has the length of the inner “m” serifs.
- I left the corner of the belly of the “b” so that the white space remains the same and the “b” remains more recognizable. This way, two single letters form a complete ligature.
- In the finished character for the millibit logo, I used the same sizes and lengths for the two currency strokes as for the bit logo. Also here are the currency strokes without the rounded corners, which are used for the serifs, because they are additions and do not belong to the letter in that sense.
bit Logo
The lowercase “b” for the “bit” logo was the first letter, usually in type design you start with the lowercase “n”, but for me the lowercase “b” was somehow easier here.
- I took the slanting stroke at the serif from the capital “B”. The rounded corners at the transition of the serif to the letter are the same size at the top as at the bottom and run through all lowercase letters. They are smaller than in the capital letter “B” because it would have looked strange if the curves had the same size as in the capital “B”.
- The thickness of the lowest part of the belly of the “b” is the same as that of the serif, so that it looks like a line.
- The upper serif is less high, but has the same length as the lower serif (like the capital “B”).
- The baseline. Visually, the arcs must go a bit above it, so that they don’t look too small.
- The small “b” goes to the H-height and forms the upper end of the letter.
- The upper stroke of the currency strokes replaces the upper serif of the “b”. It is longer than the serif of the “b”, so that it is distinguished as a currency bar.
Satoshi Logo
The capital letter “S” was the last letter. It was the most difficult letter for me to construct. On the one hand, so that the “S” fits nicely into the font like the other letters, on the other hand, so that it then also became a nice independent sign as a currency sign and did not somehow fall out of line.
- The serifs on the S are “hidden” but still recognizable. Again, there is the same slanted drop as with the “B”.
- The lower serif is slightly higher than the upper one, so that the upper one doesn’t visually press on the lower one.
- The upper and lower outer curves of the “S” go further outward to accommodate the width of the “B” and create a balance. The upper bow, however, is slightly narrower in thickness.
- The upper serif ends a bit below the “H” height to make the letter look the same size.
- I had to trick a bit and make the upper bow of the “S” a bit higher, so that the bow is still recognizable when using the currency strokes even if the sign is only displayed in 12 pt, for example, and the currency strokes themselves had to hang at the top of the H-height, so that they were not lower than the currency strokes of the lowercase “b”. The outer axes of the “S” are exactly in the center, while the inner axes are each shifted in the other direction, which gives the letter a better balance.
- The length of the currency strokes on the left are at the same height as the outer edge of the lower serif, so that they do not appear optically too long and “pull” the character backwards.
- The height and length of the currency strokes is visually adapted to the Bitcoin character, but they are slightly narrower and smaller, because they would look too bold in exactly the same size. As with the large Bitcoin B, the currency bars do not go through the letter.
MilliSatoshi Logo
The ligature respectively the sign for Millisat was the last sign. Now you may think. Ah, a mistake, she used the capital letter “S” instead of taking a lower case letter, as in “bit” and “millibit”. However, this is not the case. There are two reasons why I used the upper case letter.
1. a smaller unit than Satoshi is not represented in the code.
2. “millibit” and “bit” do not come from the word “Bitcoin” but from the unit “bit”, “millisat” or “millisatoshi” does come from “Satoshi”.
- Again, as with millibit-sign, the “m” retains its serifs including the slanted downstroke and the rounded transition from the serif to the base of the letter. Also the serifs inside the “m”. And as in “millibit”, the “m” keeps the last inner serif, but loses the last serif, because of the connection to the “S”.
- The “S” is exactly the same as the “S” for Satoshi, also the two currency strokes hang from the H-height of the glyph and are exactly the same size as in the Satoshi sign, and as in the Satoshi sign, the currency strokes do not pass through the letter. This also makes the last character a unique, understandable symbol while keeping the recognition value of the Bitcoin symbol.
The full documentation can be downloaded here, as mentioned previously:
https://gallikerdesign.ch/documentation-btc-signs-v5.pdfThe downloadable fonts in several formats can be found here:
https://gallikerdesign.ch/btc-signs.htmlHope that helps
