Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!zodiac!saturn!xanthian
From: xanthian@saturn.ADS.COM (Metafont Consultant Account)
Newsgroups: comp.fonts
Subject: Re: What Metafont is (was Re: Custom Fonts...?)
Message-ID: <10235@zodiac.ADS.COM>
Date: 30 Dec 89 07:10:43 GMT
References: <1533@cc.helsinki.fi> <3242@jarthur.Claremont.EDU>
Sender: news@zodiac.ADS.COM
Organization: Advanced Decision Systems, Mt. View, CA (415) 960-7300
Lines: 88

In article <3242@jarthur.Claremont.EDU> dhosek@jarthur.UUCP (D.A. Hosek) writes:
>In article <1533@cc.helsinki.fi> STICKLER@cc.helsinki.fi writes:
>>Also, what is the METAFONT format used in TEX? How does one
>>define a METAFONT?
>
>Metafont is a system [lots omitted...] Personally, I believe that the true
>potential of Metafont has yet to be exploited. For example, in an
>undertaking like the Quixote Oriental Fonts Project, visual design
>of the more than 50,000 characters involved would take an extravagant
>amount of time. A procedural approach seems to be the only rational 
>way to approach the development of the characters.
>
>-dh

Additional response to the above, from personal experience with
METAFONT:

I've recently had the (fun) experience of producing (for [modest]
gain) a corporate logo in METAFONT for use in TeX and LaTeX documents.
The joys of METAFONT are many.  It is a mix of a procedural and a
functional language; while a METAFONT program has a flow, lots of the
really ugly imperative programming details can be finessed by
establishing equations which define the relationships among the lines
(virtual pen strokes) of the drawing.  Relationships such as
"intersection point of two curves", "curve interpolating between two
curves", "proportional to", and "rotated about", for example, are very
easy to express.

On the down side, the output is _not_ an outline description of the
symbol, so one must create (by running the mf program with ones
METAFONT symbol program and a parameter header as input) a rasterized
instance of each point size, at each display device resolution, of the
symbol.  For even a simple situation, this can involve dozens of font
files to manage, just to support a single symbol.  For a full set of
computer modern fonts in a good range of point sizes and several
different resolutions, the files of rasterized fonts can extend to
hundreds (even perhaps low thousands), and the disk space demands are
very heavy.

To compensate, METAFONT supports _excellent_ rasterization facilities,
so that the symbols produced work well over a large range of point
sizes with relatively little effort (compared say, to making a
gridding system work well for an outline font at low point sizes) by
the symbol programmer.

Additionally, the two implementations of METAFONT with which I am
familiar (for Sun Unix(tm) and for the Amiga) come with the font
definition sources for Knuth's Computer Modern(tm?) font set.
Together with a set of existing, also furnished, parameter header
files, these font programs allow the user to create dozens of fonts.
With the user supplying parameter header files, the possibilities are
endless fonts, though all with certain stylistic similarities.  With
the user supplying the font symbol (character) programs, the sky is
the limit.

As an aside, for those with the hardware to run it, I cannot recommend
too strongly the excellent AmigaTeX, AmigaLaTeX, and AmigaMETAFONT
software from Radical Eye Software [(415) 332-6442].  The previewers
for both TeX and METAFONT, and the generally smooth and seamless
operation of this software made my work a delight, and I'm more than
happy to give Tom Rokiki and crew a free plug.

I suppose that, compared to Bitstream, Adobe, and other commercial
font vendors' products, METAFONT fonts will always be relatively
orphans, but being able to roll your own special purpose symbol set
and pop it up in TeX to decorate documents is an awfully nice feature.
Having completed my for-pay project, I couldn't resist making my own
Treehouse Computer Consulting "corporate" logo, a tree with treehouse,
using METAFONT's random number capabilities to make a tree symbol with
bark, leaves, trunk, and branches, and a treehouse right out of "There
Was a Crooked Man", all looking georgous and clearly delineated at 72
points in the letterhead I made for myself.

Now for a word from our sponsor  ;-)

--
Again, my opinion, not the account furnishers'.

xanthian@well.sf.ca.us
Kent, the (bionic) man from xanth, now available as a build-a-xanthian
kit at better toy stores near you.  Warning - uses some fragile parts.

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