Re:Font Combiner – improvements to free web fonts
by michaelmior on Sunday November 03, 2013 @08:16AM
(#6663091)
I can't imagine that it would do better than carefully designed and hinted font. But I doubt such care is given to all fonts.
Re:Font Combiner – improvements to free web fonts
by andyharl on Sunday November 03, 2013 @09:05AM
(#6663216)
This is really the problem. Many fonts are poorly hinted and not designed with small sizes on a screen in mind.
Re:Font Combiner – improvements to free web fonts
by michaelmior on Sunday November 03, 2013 @09:30AM
(#6663285)
That I will agree with. I highly doubt that Font Combiner could beat a font manually hinted by a trained fontographer though.
Re:Font Combiner – improvements to free web fonts
by DanBC on Sunday November 03, 2013 @10:07AM
(#6663385)
> I do know that type designers spend a lot of time thinking about things like "appropriate size and scale" and other metrics. Can these really be automatically recalculated from scratch and how can this possibly lead to a better result?
Do most people really see any difference?
> The Font Combiner application uses a couple of different techniques to overhaul fonts. All glyph forms are extracted from vectors present in the original fonts and scaled to size where appropriate, the vertical metrics are recalculated from scratch, and spacing and fresh automated hinting are applied to the result.
Now, I don't know a lot about the gory details of typography, but I do know that type designers spend a lot of time thinking about things like "appropriate size and scale" and other metrics. Can these really be automatically recalculated from scratch and how can this possibly lead to a better result?