Computer fonts have one glyph per symbol. This is too static for organic/informal type faces. In some situations, repeating symbols in an organic font should not look exactly the same but slightly different. Are there type faces with multiple glyphs per symbol? Or with generative means to vary glyphs? What is the technical name for such type faces? Can you name examples?
Thanks so much! --Tom
FF Kosmik (Flipper) — Random Font is the term devised by creators Van Blokland and Van Rossum for a font with multiple instances for each glyph.
Read this extensive article on OpenType substitution features by Martin Wenzel and Christoph Koeberlin:
http://ilovetypography.com/OpenType/opentype-features.html
You're talking primarily about an OpenType feature called Contextual Alternates (though there are other ways to include — or even spontaneously generate — different glyphs for the same character). Also look at Beowolf, another Blokland font.
And the grand master of "organic" typography:
http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/fontfont/mister-k/
hhp
Computer fonts have one glyph per symbol.
That’s a generalization, and untrue.
A couple of my “Random” types:
Duffy Script
Fontesque Pro
Some articles I’ve written on the subject—
for I Love Typography: Engaging Contextuality;
for Graphic Exchange: Scriptomania.
Hmm... Weren't there some Metafont and PS Type 3 fonts that changed very slightly in a random manner every time a glyph was drawn?
BTW, one thing to consider is that -if it's true that "detailed
shape memory" doesn't survive across fixations- since we can
only see ~4 glyphs perfectly clearly at a time, we only need
around 4 different fixed instances of a character and laymen
won't notice. And that's what Kosmik does BTW.
hhp
These are all very helpful replies! Thank you all very much for responding. --Tom
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