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Mathematicians Devise Typefaces Based On Problems of Computational Geometry
KentuckyFC writes: "Typeface design is something of an art. For many centuries, this art has been constrained by the materials available to typographers, mainly lead and wood. More recently, typographers have been freed from this constraint with the advent of digital typesetting and the number of typefaces has mushroomed. Verdana, for example, is designed specifically for computer screens. Now a father and son team of mathematicians have devised a number of typefaces based on problems they have studied in computational geometry. For example, one typeface is inspired by the folds and valleys generated by computational origami designs. Another is based on the open problem of 'whether every disjoint set of unit disks (gears or wheels) in the plane can be visited by a single taut non-self-intersecting conveyor belt.' Interestingly, several of the new typefaces also serve as puzzles in which messages are the solutions."
...before having to decipher those dots and lines
Well, at least now we know why typefaces are designed by artists and not mathematicians.
Hope this wasn't done in time paid for by any grant money.
This is of no use to anyone.
And I love mathematics pretty much more than anything.
Time for these guys to work in the real world, instead of playing with paint all day.
Traditionally, typeface designers have considered legibility and aesthetics in their work (in addition to typesetting limitations). Apparently those factors are optional now as well.
OK, these are interesting intellectual exercises. But don't try to sell them as examples of typeface design, because that's a creative discipline that goes beyond mathematical questions of "can it be done?"
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
does not require excessive verbiage or phony digitry. digits have 0 physical value ever
The major point of fonts is to improve communications. Clarity and lack of ambiguity are pretty much the main goals we are striving for, with style being important but not vital. These two decided to have some fun with what could be done, and they succeeded. Good for them. Unfortunately, in achieving the style, they failed on the clarity. Time to turn the page.
Strike while the irony is hot! -- The Freethinker
MIT... why are your students wasting their time and your resources on this? It doesn't solve any problems, nor is it particularly interesting.
-- a confused MIT math alumnus
And our next font is inspired by the intricate designs of Rube Goldberg machines.
Well, at least now we know why typefaces are designed by artists and not mathematicians.
Next thing you know we're going to have software engineers designing user interfaces and wording menus ... oh wait.
Monospaced font for numbers, so they can line up in a column
that's pretty funny
Typeface work is an addictive drug for mathematicians. Look at the decade lost by Knuth on this....ugh.
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/marain.htm
Monospaced font for numbers, so they can line up in a column
Also: slashed zero, as well as some distinction between capital-i and small-l (el).
A good test string that I ran across was "Illegal1 = O0". Also, m/rn/rri (em/ar-en/ar-ar-eye), w/vv (double-u/vee-vee):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IDN_homograph_attack
You raise a valid point. I was so intent on the font aspect that I didn't see your take on it. Thanks! (sig line notwithstanding - this is an irony-free post.)
Strike while the irony is hot! -- The Freethinker
It sort of reminds me of Bill Meyer's negative space cipher.
Looks like another blog-vertisement to me.
Why don't people develop new typefaces to represent concepts in programming so we can have better character identifiers for concepts that we need to type out?
- Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
Interesting article, but I don't understand why the conveyor belt problem (as described) is unsolved. Start with one pulley. Obviously a band around it works. Assume a solution exists for some finite number of pulleys, N. Since the support of the pulley locations is compact, one can always and uniquely determine the exterior of the spanning belt. Place an additional pulley exterior to this belt. There are only three topologically relevant cases -- (an pair of in the case of more than two of) the "nearest neighbor" exterior pulleys carry a belt that is "convex" (outside both), "concave" (inside both), or "mixed" (inside one, outside the other). In all three cases it can be shown that one can add the pulley and still satisfy the conditions of the problem. Hence one has 1, N and N+1, a proof by topological induction. The only additional bit of work on the proof is to note that one can avoid problems with pathological interior loopings (if necessary -- I don't really think that it is) or adding the N+1 pulley INSIDE the belt by simply reordering the inductive process for any given pattern to maintain the belt in a maximally convex state as one proceeds, that is starting with any belt and then adding the pulleys ordered by their distance from the original pulley. Not only is there "a" spanning belt, but there will be in most cases an enormous permutation of spanning belts. As in, all of the permutations one can construct by adding pulleys in circular distance order from any pulley treated as the original pulley until they are all entrained.
Even when the experts all agree, they may well be mistaken. --- Bertrand Russell.
...is that every scalable font is rendered using computational geometry. All curves in characters are defined with three or more points, and your computing device of choice does a lot of math to render pretty little characters for you.
"False hope is why we'll never run out of natural resources!" - Lewis Black
Have to be fucking readable?
A mathematician decides he wants to learn more about practical problems. He sees a seminar with a nice title: "The Theory of Gears." So he goes. The speaker stands up and begins, "The theory of gears with a real number of teeth is well known ..."
Support microSD: in a post 9/11 world, it is unwise to carry your data on media that you cannot comfortably swallow.
I guess it's my own fault for expecting something that didn't make comic sans look classy.