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Dreamcast PAL cover fonts
Posted: Fri May 12, 2023 6:45 am
by Kiroziki
Hi there,
Long time lurker, first time creating an account and posting.
I'm in the process of creating my own PAL labels for various unreleased and homebrew titles and was wondering if anyone had any idea what font was used for the end label and various SEGA copy-right and trademark information (the white text in the blue areas) Tried various ones myself but I found this to be an annoyingly long process for trial and errors.
The closest I think I've gotten is using a CartoGothicStd-Bold & CartoGothicStd, but it just doesn't look quite right to me.
Re: Dreamcast PAL cover fonts
Posted: Fri May 12, 2023 3:14 pm
by OlivusPrime
Hey, I’ve actually been working on a PAL template myself that I was hoping to release in the next few weeks, and I’ve found a couple of fonts that are decent matches for those on the rear cover and spine. I’ll check tomorrow and get back to you.
Re: Dreamcast PAL cover fonts
Posted: Mon May 15, 2023 7:14 am
by Kiroziki
OlivusPrime wrote:Hey, I’ve actually been working on a PAL template myself that I was hoping to release in the next few weeks, and I’ve found a couple of fonts that are decent matches for those on the rear cover and spine. I’ll check tomorrow and get back to you.
Brilliant, thank you. Did you get chance to find out?
Re: Dreamcast PAL cover fonts
Posted: Mon May 15, 2023 3:34 pm
by OlivusPrime
Kiroziki wrote:Brilliant, thank you. Did you get chance to find out?
Sorry for the delay, just returned from a family holiday and trying to get everything sorted!
The font I've used for the spine text and copyright info on mine is Segoe UI. Both are set to bold, with the spine text also having faux bold and a 1px outer stroke applied to match the thickness of the real thing. I think I've noticed one or two differences to the official text when I've been using this font, but generally it seems to be a very close match.
I was going to release a general template at some point alongside some cover art I've made for some NTSC releases, but I'll attach the PSD file for my Maximum Pool cover, which is pretty much finished, so that you can take a look in the meantime. There might be some other stuff in there that could prove helpful to you.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vA6Dsa ... share_link
Re: Dreamcast PAL cover fonts
Posted: Tue May 16, 2023 1:48 pm
by Kiroziki
OlivusPrime wrote:Kiroziki wrote:Brilliant, thank you. Did you get chance to find out?
Sorry for the delay, just returned from a family holiday and trying to get everything sorted!
The font I've used for the spine text and copyright info on mine is Segoe UI. Both are set to bold, with the spine text also having faux bold and a 1px outer stroke applied to match the thickness of the real thing. I think I've noticed one or two differences to the official text when I've been using this font, but generally it seems to be a very close match.
I was going to release a general template at some point alongside some cover art I've made for some NTSC releases, but I'll attach the PSD file for my Maximum Pool cover, which is pretty much finished, so that you can take a look in the meantime. There might be some other stuff in there that could prove helpful to you.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vA6Dsa ... share_link
Thank you very much for your help

Really appreciate it.
Re: Dreamcast PAL cover fonts
Posted: Tue May 16, 2023 2:22 pm
by OlivusPrime
Remarkably, I've actually just stumbled upon
Sega's official PAL coverart guidelines online - I guess those aimless strolls I take across the internet are useful after all.
I can't take credit though - it was
Black Squirrel's post on the Sonic Retro forums that I came across.
Worth noting that the font used for the spine is Frutiger Black. The shade of blue used for the artwork is defined as Pantone 660 CV - there seems to be discussion that the colour format, and inaccurate reproduction of the colour, is responsible for the variety of shades of blue seen in PAL artwork.
This weekend I'll try tearing apart these PDFs and putting together a new template that utilises Sega's official materials.
Re: Dreamcast PAL cover fonts
Posted: Tue May 16, 2023 4:41 pm
by Ian Micheal
OlivusPrime wrote:Remarkably, I've actually just stumbled upon
Sega's official PAL coverart guidelines online - I guess those aimless strolls I take across the internet are useful after all.
I can't take credit though - it was
Black Squirrel's post on the Sonic Retro forums that I came across.
Worth noting that the font used for the spine is Frutiger Black. The shade of blue used for the artwork is defined as Pantone 660 CV - there seems to be discussion that the colour format, and inaccurate reproduction of the colour, is responsible for the variety of shades of blue seen in PAL artwork.
This weekend I'll try tearing apart these PDFs and putting together a new template that utilises Sega's official materials.
WOw really cool thank you for doing all that work tracking this down
