Re: Proposal: Font Use Modelling

(I believe I said this, but it doesn't seem to have come through;  maybe
I didn't reply to the list...)

[Chris Lilley]
> 
> On Aug 9,  3:23pm, Tiro TypeWorks wrote:
> 
> > I suspect, if such modelling were available, font technology developers
> > would see the need to control, within the font data, the ways in which a
> > font can be used.
> 
> Rather like certain Kanji fonts which are restricted to being imaged at low
> resolution (below 600dpi) for example? Or a license for temporary installation
>  for read only use with documents from a particular website?

Such a restriction would be technically enforcible;  this could be done
by flattening the curves in the font to straight lines, with the tolerance
set appropriately for the intended resolution.  Thus, a font could be released
in various "grades";  a cheaper low-grade version which would scale and 
render well at low resolutions (i.e., in browsers) but which would not look 
good when printed on a high-resolution device, and a more expensive 
print-grade version with the curves intact.

This could be supplemented with other tweaks (i.e., removing flex
information in favour of pre-rendering curves for low resolutions)
which would make a low-resolution version of the font.

-- 
  http://www.zikzak.net/~acb/       "`HAVE A NICE DAY' died for your sins."
           <acb@dev.null.org>                                  -- Mumbles

Received on Tuesday, 13 August 1996 02:56:52 UTC