Parametric type design in the era of variable and color fonts

TL;DR

This paper explores modern parametric type design using MetaPost, demonstrating how variable fonts can be created through a parametric approach, and discusses insights from this process.

Contribution

It introduces a contemporary workflow for parametric font design with MetaPost, producing open-source variable fonts and analyzing their design process.

Findings

Created two open-source variable fonts using parametric design.

Demonstrated the viability of MetaPost for modern type design.

Provided insights into the workflow and principles of parametric font creation.

Abstract

Parametric fonts are programatically defined fonts with variable parameters, pioneered by Donald Kunth with his MetaFont technology in the 1980s. While Donald Knuth's ideas in MetaFont and subsequently in MetaPost are often seen as legacy techniques from the pre-graphical user interface (GUI) era of type design, recent trends like variable fonts suggest a resurgence of certain principles. This paper explores a modern type design process built on parametric design principles, specifically using MetaPost. The author created two variable fonts with this method and released them under a free, open-source license. The paper details the methodology, workflow, and insights gained from this process.