Update ROND 100 masters in Saudi Riyal (U+20C1) to match rest of the GSF

[MariannaPaszkowska]

Describe the issue

The ROND 100 masters in Saudi Riyal sign look less rounded than other characters. That's still considering the different calligraphic roots. The intention is to match the ballpoint pen look of the other characters at ROND 100.

Screenshots

To Reproduce

Paste ⃁ and go to ROND 100 (the glyph in this description might show tofu atm)

Affected Glyphs [mandatory]

⃁ Saudi Riyal symbol (U+20C1) (the glyph in this description might show tofu atm)

Design Space location [mandatory]

ROND 100

cc @davelab6 @aaronbell @simoncozens @yanone

[davelab6]

@khaledhosny please could you make the full rounded style in weight max width max, so we can see what it looks like and better decide?

[khaledhosny]

wght=1000 wdth=151 opsz=144 GRAD=0 ROND=0 and ROND=100, first two lines are the current, while second two lines implement the proposal (the perpendicularly cut terminal in the new ROND=0 glyph was not asked for here, but I received an earlier question about it so I did it for completeness):

My problem with the proposed change is that:

1. Riyal glyph is significantly lighter in bolder weights, but this is could be justified by the pen angle. Without the pen angle it looks odd to me to keep it this light, and the glyph is rather complex so making it heavier is not possible.
2. Having the ROND=0 masters with a different terminal cut, makes it the intermediate instances look odd (see below) and a perpendicular cut is even odder (see above), so we don’t want to use it either.

Screen.Recording.2025-12-23.at.2.07.55.AM.mov

(ignoring the interpolation glitch for now, though I don’t even know what to do with it)

[aaronbell]

A few thoughts:

• I agree that the flat topped / symmetric rounding feels a little out of place in this particular design. The calligraphic rounding definitely feels better to me. However, I wonder if the top angle could / should be reduced for these to help them feel more sturdy, akin to the other currency symbols:

• In reading your comments about how the Riyal is lighter, it could be worth varying from the pen tool to add more weight in the vertical stem. It means that the vertical and horizontal aren't even, but it gives more presence without significantly impacting the design.

• Finally, I started to think that maybe the optical sizing felt off vs the /3, so I tweaked the form a little:

And with the rounded:

Obviously I'm not an Arabic designer, so take these suggestions with a grain of salt, but I do find that this version feels more balanced (size / color) with the other symbols / figures while still maintaining the calligraphic feel.

[khaledhosny]

Thanks for the suggestions, and I agree it is a significant improvement.

[aaronbell]

@khaledhosny Hi Khaled, just wanted to check in on your timeline for completing an updated version. Thanks!

[khaledhosny]

If there are no other changes requested, I can implement the changes above right away.

[aaronbell]

AFAIK, this is it. @davelab6?

[davelab6]

Yes sounds good please proceed

[khaledhosny]

I pushed the changes to a new branch: KH-SRiyal-fixes

[octaviopardo]

Hi, just in case you want to consider it, the transition from the diagonal cuts to a rounding closer to what we have in the rest of the font is possible by tweaking and playng with the nodes a bit. I made a demo using only the opsz18 wdth100, but it should be easy to expand to the rest of the font in case you want to implement it.

I did the changes in the top right stem only so you can compare how it looks vs the current implementation. Not sure if it can be appreciated but the transition during the rounding from the corners to the straight segments is always tangent and smooth, only limited by the density of the grid

riyal-rounding-test.mov

[MariannaPaszkowska]

Hi, @khaledhosny
Following @octaviopardo ’s demonstration, would you be able to update the terminals in Saudi Riyal accordingly? The approach shows we can achieve clean cuts on the sharp end while also supporting fully rounded terminals.
This would help to make its design consistent with the rest of the font across the design space, from sharp to fully rounded. The design of the latest Riyal's aligns better with a previous version of the rounding. It has the "organic" look of the whole terminal being rounded, while currently we need to round the corners of the terminals, just like we did in all of the glyphs from the releases 3.0 and up.
Let us know if this works on your side, and please feel free to reach out if you have any questions about the setup. Octavio can support you as needed.

[khaledhosny]

I thought we agreed the current design is best suited for this glyph. See Aaron comments above.