Please improve my logo to resemble our TeX.SX logo

Question

It is free to use TikZ or PSTricks to answer my question. I want to recreate our TeX.SX logo. But my attempt is far from perfect. Please help me to make it more similar to the original one.

\documentclass[pstricks,border=0pt]{standalone}
\begin{document}
\begin{pspicture}(8,3)
\rput(4,1.5){\psscalebox{8}{\textcolor{gray}{\{}\textcolor{red}{\TeX}\textcolor{gray}{\}}}}
\end{pspicture}
\end{document}

The aspects I want to improve:

1. Font type.
2. Font color and its shading.

Answer 1

There a few antialiasing artefacts that I don't know how to get rid of, and it uses some experimental code (what else?!). The font used is Hoefler (according to my Mac). The code itself won't work without some extra bits and pieces (one of which is the conversion of the Hoefler font to PGF paths - does anyone know the licence for Hoefler?). I also don't think that the braces are Hoefler.

For what it's worth, here's the code:

\documentclass{standalone}
%\url{http://tex.stackexchange.com/q/85050/86}
\usepackage[svgnames]{xcolor}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{shapes.letters,shadows.blur}

\pgfkeys{
  /pgf/letter/.cd,
  load font={hoefler}{normal},
  size=4,
  load encoding=name,
}

\definecolor{logoBack}{HTML}{F8F8F2}
\definecolor{brace}{HTML}{F6F6EF}
\definecolor{letter}{HTML}{C04848}

\makeatletter
\tikzset{
  use letter path/.code={%
    \pgfscope
    \pgftransformscale{\letter@size}%
    \letter@path{\letter@encode{#1}}%
    \endpgfscope
  }
}
\makeatother
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[every shadow/.style={
    shadow blur invert,
    shadow xshift=-1pt,
    shadow yshift=-3pt
}]
\coordinate (bleft) at (-2,0);
\coordinate (T) at (0,0);
\coordinate (E) at (2.3cm,-.65cm);
\coordinate (X) at (4.35cm,0);
\coordinate (bright) at (8.6,0);
\begin{scope}
\begin{scope}[shift={(bleft)}]
\fill[color=brace,use letter path=braceleft];
\clip[use letter path=braceleft];
\path[blur shadow,shadow xshift=2pt, shadow yshift=0pt,use letter path=braceleft];
\path[blur shadow,shadow xshift=-1pt, shadow yshift=0pt,use letter path=braceleft];
\end{scope}
\begin{scope}[shift={(T)}]
\fill[color=letter,use letter path=T];
\clip[use letter path=T];
\path[blur shadow,use letter path=T];
\end{scope}
\begin{scope}[shift={(E)}]
\fill[color=letter,use letter path=E];
\clip[use letter path=E];
\path[blur shadow,use letter path=E];
\end{scope}
\begin{scope}[shift={(X)}]
\fill[color=letter,use letter path=X];
\clip[use letter path=X];
\path[blur shadow,use letter path=X];
\end{scope}
\begin{scope}[shift={(bright)}]
\fill[color=brace,use letter path=braceright];
\clip[use letter path=braceright];
\path[blur shadow,shadow xshift=2pt, shadow yshift=0pt,use letter path=braceright];
\path[blur shadow,shadow xshift=-1pt, shadow yshift=0pt,use letter path=braceright];
\end{scope}
\path (current bounding box.north west) ++(-1,1)  (current bounding box.south east) ++(1,-1);
\clip[shift={(T)},use letter path=T] (current bounding box.north west) rectangle (current bounding box.south east);
\clip[shift={(bleft)},use letter path=braceleft] (current bounding box.north west) rectangle (current bounding box.south east);
\clip[shift={(E)},use letter path=E] (current bounding box.north west) rectangle (current bounding box.south east);
\clip[shift={(X)},use letter path=X] (current bounding box.north west) rectangle (current bounding box.south east);
\clip[shift={(bright)},use letter path=braceright] (current bounding box.north west) rectangle (current bounding box.south east);
\fill[logoBack,rounded corners] (current bounding box.north west) rectangle (current bounding box.south east);
\end{scope}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

As well as needing the letter shapes from Hoefler and the code to make use of it, in doing this I spotted an issue with the pgf-blur library now needing unique fading names. So it really isn't compilable with "off the shelf" code! Modulo a few updates, most of it is on the TeX-SX launchpad - Hoefler being the key exception.

Answer 2

The closest how I can get now is:

\documentclass[]{article}
\usepackage[usenames,dvipsnames]{xcolor}
\usepackage[outline]{contour}
\usepackage{libertine}
\begin{document}
\bfseries
\Huge{
\contourlength{.4pt}
\textsc{
\textcolor{white}{\contour{gray}{\textbraceleft}}
\contourlength{.3pt}
\hspace{-15pt}
\textcolor{BrickRed}{\contour{black}{\TeX}}
\hspace{-15pt}
\contourlength{.4pt}
\textcolor{white}{\contour{gray}{\textbraceright}}
}
\end{document}

Answer 3

This is an attempt, not nearly as complete or elegant as Andrew Stacey's or Herbert's, but without requiring any non-standard or beta packages. It combines Mico's and boucekv's approaches. Interestingly, it produces the output in lualatex, but not using xelatex.

 \documentclass  {article}
 \pagestyle {empty}
 \usepackage[usenames,dvipsnames]{xcolor}
 \usepackage[centering,margin=1mm]{geometry}
 \geometry{papersize={1.5in,0.4in}}
 \usepackage[outline]{contour}
  \usepackage{metalogo}
    \makeatletter
    \def\xl@drop@TeX@e{0.39ex} % default value: 0.5ex
    \makeatother
 \usepackage {fontspec}
 \setmainfont {Hoefler Text}
 \begin{document}
 \centering
 \Huge{
 \contourlength{0.01em}
 \textcolor{gray!10}{\contour{gray}{\{}}
 \textcolor{BrickRed}{\contour{black}{\TeX}}
 \textcolor{gray!10}{\contour{gray}{\}}}
 }
 \end{document}

Answer 4

Here's how one might recreate the logo using LuaLaTeX (and the font Hoefler Text); XeLaTeX will work too, of course.

% !TEX TS-program = lualatex
\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{fontspec}
  \setmainfont{Hoefler Text}
\usepackage{metalogo}
  \makeatletter
  \def\xl@drop@TeX@e{0.38ex} % default value: 0.5ex
  \makeatother
\usepackage{xcolor}
\definecolor{TeXSEred}{rgb}{0.75,0.28125,0.28125}
 % many thanks to Alan Munn for stating the precise color :-)
\begin{document}
\textcolor{gray}{\{}\space 
\textcolor{TeXSEred}{\TeX}
\textcolor{gray}{\}}
\end{document}

Answer 5

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{pst-grad,pst-light3d,pstricks-add}
\DeclareFixedFont{\Rmb}{T1}{ptm}{m}{n}{4cm}
\begin{document}
\begin{pspicture}(0,-4)(8,4)
\psset{linewidth=0.5pt}
\psBrace[braceWidth=4mm,fillstyle=gradient,gradbegin=black,gradend=white,
  gradangle=0,gradmidpoint=0](0.5,2)(0.5,-2)
\rput(4,0){\PstLightThreeDText[fillstyle=solid,fillcolor=red!100!black!70,
LightThreeDAngle=60,LightThreeDYLength=0.1]{\Rmb\TeX}}
\psBrace[braceWidth=4mm,fillstyle=gradient,gradbegin=white,gradend=black,
  gradangle=0,gradmidpoint=0](7.5,-2)(7.5,2)
\end{pspicture}

\end{document}

needs latest pstricks-add from http://texnik.dante.de/tex/genric/pstricks-add/