Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uunet!samsung!usc!jarthur!sif.claremont.edu From: dhosek@sif.claremont.edu (Hosek, Donald A.) Newsgroups: comp.fonts Subject: Re: METAFONT: After the manual... Keywords: Whoa! I'll say. Message-ID: <7900@jarthur.Claremont.EDU> Date: 22 Jul 90 21:04:45 GMT Sender: news@jarthur.Claremont.EDU Reply-To: dhosek@sif.claremont.edu Distribution: usa Organization: Harvey Mudd College Lines: 64 In article <5235@uwm.edu>, andrew@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Andy Biewer) writes... >I've just recently begun digging into METAFONT over here and will soon >finish my first pass through the METAFONTbook. Since I'm still a little >dizzy from the first reading, I'll most definitely be brushing through it >again. However, I noticed that the book, though it is complete in >describing the METAFONT system, doesn't offer any practical tips on actual >font creation (e.g., design, layout, methodology, etc.) Can someone out >there proffer any assistance/instruction/direction in this area? I'm >looking for books, articles, tips, you-name-its. Did Knuth (are you out >there?) write another book strictly focused on this topic? Does TUGboat >have an decent articles on it? Whatever you can think of, throw it my way. So you want to design type, do you? Well, the best way to do this is to gain a really thorough understanding of how type works. Here's what I recommend: (1) Confine your early MF experiments to non-letterform experiments. Make some dingbats (random symbols), corporate logos, etc. Get familiar with the capabilities of MF as a drawing tool. (2) Buy a calligraphy set and get familiar with drawing calligraphic faces by hand. Study italic faces and old-style faces (Palatino and the Times lower case are good ones) to see how the shapes relate to what you were getting with the calligraphic pen. (3) At this point, you may want to try doing a few calligraphic letters using MF. My experience has been that MF's pens are of limited utility in this sort of work. (4) Roman letters. Get a type speciman book (a good library will have several) and examine the Roman typefaces closely. Trace alphabets with a pencil and then work at being able to draw them freehand in outline form. (traditionally-trained typographers can draw most typefaces from memory with no variations in any of the dimensions. In this way, they can tell *exactly* how much space, say, the phrase "pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs" will take if typeset in 12pt Times Italic. The utility of such a talent is reduced with modern typesetting technology, but it's a neat way to amaze your friends. (5) As a first experiment with Roman letters in MF, I would suggest drawing the Trajan capitals (a good book to use as a guide is Frederic W. Goudy's _The Trajan Capitals_, Oxford Press: New York, 1936.) If you can, you may want to spend some time carving letters to fully grasp how the letter forms came about. (6) Now for your first _real_ design experiment. You should have a sufficient grasp of how letter forms are derived to take a stab at designing a lowercase compatible with the Trajan capitals. Your results will probably be horrible, but with more practice, you can change that. Remember that traditional type designers spend years learning their craft. You will need to learn everything they know plus how to implement it in MF. It will take time, but the results will doubtless be worth it. -dh --- Don Hosek TeX, LaTeX, and Metafont Consulting and dhosek@ymir.claremont.edu production work. Free Estimates. dhosek@ymir.bitnet uunet!jarthur!ymir Phone: 714-625-0147