Meta Font

METAFONT is a tool for creating high-quality digital typefaces. It was written by DonaldKnuth to provide fonts for use with TeX.

METAFONT is actually a rather capable (although slightly odd) programming language in its own right. It includes many beautiful but complicated algorithms (for choosing control points on Bezier curves, for producing the outline of a curve drawn with a polygonal pen without nasty digital artefacts, and so on).

The reason for the name is that when your typeface design tool is a complete programming language, you can parametrize your typefaces. This lets you do things like adjusting the letterforms for different type sizes (you generally want larger counters at smaller sizes, for instance) and producing variant typefaces (with less pronounced serifs, or halfway between "regular" and "semibold", or whatever). Sharing code between different typefaces helps to give typographical consistency between them, too.

Knuth wrote a very interesting paper called "The concept of a meta-font", in which he demonstrated some of the capabilities of his system by typesetting Psalm 23 ("The Lord is my shepherd...") with each letter in a slightly different typeface, shading imperceptibly between two very different faces.

Unfortunately, very few people are both competent programmers and competent type designers. METAFONT hasn't been used much. Some of the same sort of variability is available in Adobe's "Multiple Masters" fonts (and, I think, other similar things with different names), but this is pretty limited compared with what you can do with METAFONT.

See also MetaPost, John Hobby's spin-off of MetaFont that produces PostScript output instead of fonts. The PostScript output can then be included in a TeX or LaTex document, or can be used separately.

The only reference books available for MetaFont are DonKnuth's original books:

though other books cover it peripherally. Note that the hardcover books may be out of stock. -- EricJablow

I think that DonKnuth would love to have this book also near this list:

It is a book where he puts both TeX and METAFONT to work their magic. The book starts with the words "THE BIBLE is an incomparable book." and approaches the bible by selecting only 59 of its 30.000 verses, verse 16 of chapter 3 of each book of the bible that has a verse 3:16. These 59 verses are set individually by 59 of the world's finest calligraphers, making each a picture and beautiful work of art. Knuth himself translated the verses carefully into contemporary English. Each verse is accompanied by 2-3 pages of comments. Form and content are in absolute harmony, just beautiful.

It is a marvelous book made by an enthusiastic Christian who happens to be one of the most brilliant software minds in history.

May those here who fiercely fight Christian ideas read his book and rethink their positions.

-- HelmutLeitner

At http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/john316.eps.gz you can find something closely related to the 3:16 book: a calligraphic rendition by Herman Zapf of a translation by Knuth of John 3:16. It's rather ingenious.

I would point out that MetaFont and TeX are not only used for English language text; the catalog of MetaFont alphabets includes hundreds of alphabets. There are fonts for the many Indic languages, the various variants of Cyrillic, Arabic, Hebrew, and many others. In fact, recent issues of TuGBoat, the TeX Users' Group Journal, have articles about reforming Hebrew typesetting; standards have dropped in recent years. I believe that there are projects to republish the Babylonian Talmud using TeX and MetaFont technology.

I think it's time to discuss Jewish ideas on the WikiWikiWeb, but I'm probably in a minority here. --EricJablow

Hey, where can I find a TeX Talmud ? I'm deeply interested ! --NicolasEscapeMontessuit

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