ANRT 2016: Why Didn’t METAFONT Catch On?

The second edition of the inter­national con­fe­rence 'automatic type design' (http://automatic-type-design.anrt-nancy.fr/en) orga­nized by the anrt, addressed the history of digital fonts, and parti­cularly metafonts, in a historical and critical pers­pective; the renewal of para­metric type­faces in new appli­cations; font production proces­ses and auto­mation of type design, the contri­bution of compu­ter sciences and document analysis to typo­graphic design; the role of design in the field of digital humanities, and new pers­pectives in responsive typography.

This presentation addressed the history of METAFONT, largely presenting my TUG Conference 2008 presentation (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwPObPbk90I) that was also published as TUGBoat paper, https://www.tug.org/TUGboat/tb29-3/tb93crossland.pdf

Transcript

1. Why Didn’t METAFONT Catch On? Dave Crossland <dcrossland@google.com> automatic-type-design.anrt-nancy.fr 2016-11-17
2. METAFONT
3. TeX
4. One of the earliest digital type design systems
5. Initial release
6. Initial release 1978
7. Initial release 1978 38 years ago
8. Donald Knuth
9. Donald Knuth Stanford Professor
10. Donald Knuth Stanford Professor high quality textbooks ❤
11. 2 goals
12. anybody to produce high quality books with minimal effort
13. system to give exactly same results on any computer, at any time
16. Completely capable of typesetting mathematical equations
19. Completely capable of typesetting any writing system
20. Digital Typesetting
21. Digital Typesetting
22. METAFONT
25. Freely available
26. Freely available Online
27. Freely available Online (since before the internet)
28. Bug Free
29. Bug Free
30. Never caught on with type designers
31. Why?
32. 3 Kinds Of people
33. Those who can count
34. Those who can count Those who can’t
35. Type
36. Personality Type
37. “Myers-Briggs” Personality Type
38. Myers-Briggs
39. Myers-Briggs Carl Jung
40. Myers-Briggs Carl Jung David Keirsey
42. Bad
43. Bad Pop
44. Bad Pop Psychology
45. Bad Pop Psychology
46. Temperament
47. Temperament Character
48. Temperament Character Intelligences
49. Temperament Character Intelligences
50. Decisions
51. Logical Emotional
52. Logical Emotional
53. Logical Emotional Language
54. Logical Emotional Abstract Emotional
55. Logical Emotional Abstract Concrete
56. Logical Emotional Abstract Concrete
57. Thinking Emotional Abstract Concrete
58. Thinking Feeling Abstract Concrete
59. Thinking Feeling Abstract Sensing
60. Thinking Feeling iNtuition Sensing
61. Thinking Feeling iNtuition Sensing
62. Socialising
63. Drained Energised
64. Drained Energised
65. Drained Energised Time Keeping
66. Drained Energised Flexible Punctual
67. Drained Energised Flexible Punctual
68. Introverted Energised.. Flexible Punctual
69. Introverted Extraverted Flexible Punctual
70. Introverted Extraverted Flexible Judging.
71. Introverted Extraverted Perceiving Judging...
72. Introverted Extraverted Perceiving Judging...
73. esfj isfj infj enfj esfp isfp infp enfp estj istj intj entj estp istp intp entp
74. esfj isfj infj enfj esfp isfp infp enfp estj istj intj entj estp istp intp entp
75. esfj isfj infj enfj esfp isfp infp enfp estj istj intj entj estp istp intp entp
76. esfj isfj infj enfj esfp isfp infp enfp estj istj intj entj estp istp intp entp
77. esfj isfj infj enfj esfp isfp infp enfp estj istj intj entj estp istp intp entp
78. esfj isfj infj enfj esfp isfp infp enfp estj istj intj entj estp istp intp entp
79. esfj isfj infj enfj esfp isfp infp enfp estj istj intj entj estp istp intp entp
80. esfj isfj infj enfj esfp isfp infp enfp estj istj intj entj estp istp intp entp
81. 16 Personality Types esfj isfj infj enfj esfp isfp infp enfp estj istj intj entj estp istp intp entp
82. 4 Temperaments esfj isfj infj enfj esfp isfp infp enfp estj istj intj entj estp istp intp entp
83. 4 Temperaments esfj isfj infj enfj esfp isfp infp enfp estj istj intj entj estp istp intp entp
84. esfj isfj infj enfj esfp isfp infp enfp estj istj intj entj estp istp intp entp
85. Guardian esfj isfj infj enfj esfp isfp infp enfp estj istj intj entj estp istp intp entp
86. SJ Guardian esfj isfj infj enfj esfp isfp infp enfp estj istj intj entj estp istp intp entp
87. esfj isfj infj enfj esfp isfp infp enfp estj istj intj entj estp istp intp entp
88. Artisan esfj isfj infj enfj esfp isfp infp enfp estj istj intj entj estp istp intp entp
89. SP Artisan esfj isfj infj enfj esfp isfp infp enfp estj istj intj entj estp istp intp entp
90. esfj isfj infj enfj esfp isfp infp enfp estj istj intj entj estp istp intp entp
91. Idealist esfj isfj infj enfj esfp isfp infp enfp estj istj intj entj estp istp intp entp
92. NF Idealist esfj isfj infj enfj esfp isfp infp enfp estj istj intj entj estp istp intp entp
93. esfj isfj infj enfj esfp isfp infp enfp estj istj intj entj estp istp intp entp
94. TeX Nerds esfj isfj infj enfj esfp isfp infp enfp estj istj intj entj estp istp intp entp
95. NT TeX Nerds esfj isfj infj enfj esfp isfp infp enfp estj istj intj entj estp istp intp entp
96. NT Rationalist esfj isfj infj enfj esfp isfp infp enfp estj istj intj entj estp istp intp entp
97. NT Rationalist N: Abstract T: Logical
98. Mathematics Abstract Logical
99. Type Design?. Abstract Logical
100. Type Design?. Visual Logical
101. Type Design?. Concrete Logical
102. Type Design?. Concrete Emotional
106. AMS Euler
108. Neo Euler
109. Why?
111. Boyd Cycle
112. Observe
113. Observe Orientate
114. Observe Orientate Decide
115. Observe Orientate Decide Act
117. www.sharelatex.com
119. www.metaflop.com
121. Thanks!