D.B. Latner: Critique on Variable Fonts

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D.B. Latner: Critique on Variable Fonts D.B. Latner writes: I am glad Multiple Master fonts was mentioned, as this is remarkably similar to that technology from the mid-90s. But I am worried that many of the same reasons that MM failed (as well as the Panose numbering system) will play out again in this century, including: Too much choice can cause more frustration rather than less. Hard to create consistency throughout a publication. Very difficult to spec the type ("no, I told you to use Helvetica 105cba7, not Helvetica 105a9e!") Hard to create a good UI, so only the hard-core font geeks get around to using it. Hard to convince software companies to include a technology that only font-lovers see the value of (look how long it has taken for even some basic OpenType formatting to catch on). Hard to design these fonts, so there end up not being very many of them. I am very excited to read about this reintroduction of what is essentially MM fonts, because I LOVED that technology. But it's hard to think about without feeling a little sting of remembered pain from MM's death two decades ago.	EXTERNAL LINKS D.B. Latner: Critique on Variable Fonts MyFonts search Monotype search Fontspring search Google search INTERNAL LINKS Variable fonts ⦿

Luc Devroye ⦿ School of Computer Science ⦿ McGill University Montreal, Canada H3A 2K6 ⦿ lucdevroye@gmail.com ⦿ http://luc.devroye.org ⦿ http://luc.devroye.org/fonts.html