R has it all: a vertical, a round, a diagonal, and a certain je ne sais quoi that makes all letters want to be R, and all punctuation want to be with R.

R is similar to many letters like A, E, H, etc, in that we try to balance the size of the top and bottom negative space.

Sometimes we see this bummer version of R. I think it looks too close to B, and too bold in the connection.

Minuscule edits to thin out the joint and add a bit more diagonal help tremendously.

In most cases, there are four serifs on R.

In expansion, the bottom right serif can turn into an exit stroke that relates to a and t.

Similar to j, f, and others, r’s curve only needs to make a quarter turn! This can help spacing a lot.

I had some tough teachers in school ([Peter Verheul](https://farhill.nl/)) that would draw water droplets coming out of r with this form. Their critique was indelibly scorched in my mind.

Compairing these two, it’s easy to see how the r is derived from n, so I always make my n first.