Claudia Toosey

A tessellation is a shape that can be used to completely fill the plane—simple examples are isosceles triangles, squares, and hexagons. Tessellation patterns are eye-catching and visually appealing, which is the reason that they have long been popular in a variety of decorative situations. These Tessie fonts have two family members, a solid style that must have different colors when used and an outline style. They can be used separately or they can be used in layers with the outline style on top of the solid style. For rows to align properly, leading must be the same as point size. To see how patterns can be constructed, see the “Samples” file in the gallery.

TessieOddsNEnds contains shapes that did not fit into the other Tessie fonts: TessieStandingBirds, TessieFlyingBirds, TessieMoreBirds, TessieXtraBirds, TessieSpinners, TessiePuzzlePieces, TessieAnimals, TessieBugs, TessieMiscellaneous, and TessieMoreStuff.

(Earlier tessellation fonts from IngrimayneType, the TessieDingies fonts, lack a black or filled version so cannot do colored patterns. The addition of a solid style that must be colored makes these new fonts a bit more difficult to use but offers far greater possibilities in getting visually interesting results.)

After exploring tessellations for several years, I decided to see how many ways I could tessellate puzzle pieces. I began with a square template and used the same asymmetrical shape for all four edges. By flips or rotation each edge could be fitted in four ways. Eventually I discovered that, given this way of forming tiles, there were 15 distinct shapes that tessellate and these shapes can take a total of 96 orientations. (A note in the November 2016 issue of Mathematical Gazette has the proof for the 15 shapes.) This typeface contains those 15 shapes and 96 orientations. A pdf note in the gallery shows some of the tilings possible using only one shape in a pattern. An unlimited number of patterns are possible if shapes are mixed.

There are two members of the family, a solid style that must have different colors when used and an outline style. They can be used separately or they can be used in layers with the outline style on top of the solid style. For rows to align properly, leading must be the same as point size. (Earlier tessellation fonts from IngrimayneType, the TessieDingies fonts, lack a black or filled version so cannot do colored patterns.)