Laika, a dynamic typeface

by gb • 17 years ago

34 7 17 years ago

jcl• 17 years ago

The idea of parameterized typefaces is an old one; I guess this example is interesting in that it attempts to parameterize between a serif and sanserif typeface.

gjm11• 17 years ago

Knuth's paper "The concept of a meta-font" (from 1981) has a nice example in which he typesets Psalm 23 ("The Lord is my shepherd ..."), changing the parameters of his font a little with every character. It's sans-serif at one end, serif at the other. (Among other things.) Regrettably, this demonstration doesn't seem to be available online. You can find it, e.g., in Hofstadter's "Metamagical Themas".

harpastum• 17 years ago

I found the passage in Hofstadter's Metamagical Themas on Google Books [1].

Here's an image of it: http://blog.samwarmuth.com/post/218259393/figure-12-1

[1]Metamagical Themas: http://books.google.com/books?id=o8jzWF7rD6oC&lpg=PP1...

stevenbedrick• 17 years ago

Looks like somebody hooked up METAFONT to some hardware controls... nifty UI hack, but, as JCL already said, far from new.

omouse• 17 years ago

Re-invention beats invention everytime. I think Stewart Brand of Whole Earth Catalog fame said that.

mikegioia• 17 years ago

I thought this was fantastic. In that vid it looked like it might have been some new way to create fonts. I think that would be an interesting thing to research or develop. Something where you can, through mechanical devices "feel out" a new font. Or maybe one where you can record a new font similar to how you record an audio track. Hook up a keyboard and the typeface creates itself based on the audio spectrum you create. You could have fonts that are almost alive.

gb• 17 years ago

You can actually try it on the site, by the way: http://laikafont.ch/applet/test.html

Laika, a dynamic typeface

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