Parametric type design
in the era of variable and color fonts
Santhosh Thottingal
Typeface designer
Manjari, Chilanka, Nupuram, Malini typefaces
Software Engineer
Principal Software Engineer at Wikimedia Foundation
Introduction
asking an artist to become enough of a mathematician to understand how to write a font with 60 parameters is too much.
Typefaces are sophisticated software
Designers either possess a working knowledge of software engineering and mathematical principles
or
Collaborate closely with ‘type engineers’
MetaPost
Written by John Hobby, outputs vector graphic files (SVG)
Modernization effort
The typefaces
Derivative applications
Lessons
Easy experimentation
Modularity
Mathematical accuracy vs Optical Correctness
Nib based design Vs Outline oriented design