Working Title: Computed Type – An Investigation in Parameterical Font Design

Short Abstract

A lot of tasks in font design are interlinked and a change on one letter will maybe create hours of work on others. The idea of the parametrical typeface minimizes those problems (while probably creating new ones) and would allow to design an infinite number of typefaces at the same time.
I will try to understand why this way of designing a font never got widely adopted. If it is possible to make the design of western characters more efficient, quicker and more accessible. And if this approach to type design would help to create new and interesting curves and shapes for letters.

Long Abstract (old)

Type design is a long and tideous process. Just to design the basic letters takes days and it sometimes takes years for a full character set. The process has changed over time as technology has evolved but is still farely complex, complicated and understood and maintained by only a small group of people. A lot of tasks in font design are interlinked but have to be done by hand even that scripts and new developments try to take over repetitive manual tasks.

Already in the 70s Donald Knuth developed a program that worked with the idea of parametrical typefaces and would allow to design an infinite number of typefaces. Why got this way of designing a font never adopted by more then a handful of people? Is it possible to create a far more easy to use program to design western characters by trying to analyze the strongness and weakness of other approaches? Does a programmatic approach to type design help to create new and interesting curves and shapes for letterforms something that would not have been imagined before?

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My name is Christoph Knoth I am currently doing my master at the ECAL in Lausanne. I applied with the idea of making a font that is not only made with but also by a computer program. Just knowing a little bit about the work of Donald Knuth and trying to draw inspiration from it.

In this blog I will publish all the things I learn every day. Showing some experiments and first steps in scripting and programming by for example trying to learn metafont and finding out how it works. On the other hand I will try to give an overview about projects from other people who are or were working with the idea of «parametrical typefaces».

I hope to create and maintain a reading list soon and write my abstract.

This site will grow and change with the time i am working on it, stay tuned.