[Indic-computing-users] better font design

[LinuxLingam <lin...@bh...>]

On Tuesday 29 April 2003 03:34 pm, Dr. U.B. Pavanaja wrote:
> Dear LL,
>
> Making a good quality font which joins all the glyphs properly
> and displays properly is NOT just a hinting question. Hinting
> comes at the end. There more issues like appropriate em values,
> weight, width, height, code pages, embeddable, etc. 

yes, am aware of these issues acutely.
>Mos important factor is to have a good non-intersecting clean
> outline. 

yes, this point is also understood.
>There are many whitepapers on the subject available on
> the web. Hinting improves the display at small point sizes. 

or at coarse resolutions.

could you please point the urls to the relevant whitepapers? also, if you 
have links to hinting whitepapers and pdfs, would also be appreciated.



>
> Currently all those who are making OTF are concentrating more on
> functionality than on asthetics. Once they have mastered the
> functionality aspect, I am very sure, atleast some of them will
> concentrate on improving the asthetics.

except that you may just find it is easier to design a font from scratch for 
better aesthetics, than to attempt cleaning an existing one.

>
> Our aim should be to master the technology, demonstrate it and
> then approach the publishing industry to sponsor high quality
> font development which is quite expensive affair.

chicken before the egg.

western digital typography was born the other way around. in fact, no matter 
what, poorer quality fonts have always fallen by the wayside, in my 
experience since 1982 with computers. no matter which media, which 
manifestation they come in.

OTF made its mark not with functional fonts in western typography but with 
highly polished, very professional, top-end fonts. otherwise the community 
would have been reluctant to adopt them. the case of indic languages is 
peculiar. even getting a functional indic OTF was/is a delight.

aiming for typset-quality typography is starting and ending with the problem 
solved completely. as we say in hindi "In the elephant's leg you will find 
the legs of all."


anyways, just my two paisas on the thought. please do give me the urls of the 
whitepapers.

:-)
LL