Hewlett-packard Company

Paul M Higinbotham

Raymond G Beausoleil

Clyde D McQueen

Benjamin P Bauermeister

Michael S DeLaurentis

Daniel E Lipkie

Donald J Munsil

A method and system for parametrically generating characters and fonts. A font generation system is run on a computer and allows a user to create a Terafont binary file, which includes a set of universal font generation rules that are applied to generating fonts consistent with a common type of alphabet, and parametric data files, each of which specify a particular font. The user can create a new font, or replicate an existing font. The parametric data are distributed as files or embedded in documents. One or more characters of a font are generated using a font engine that executes the Terafont binary file on a computer using the parametric data specifying that font as an input. The parametric data provided to the font engine at least include a minimal set of font measurement data, such as a PANOSE.TM. number, which are used to compute global variables representing typographic characteristics common to many--if not all--of the glyphs in the font. Additional global and local variables needed to capture nuances of individual characters are computed or assigned default values by the font engine. Thus, a wide variety of fonts can be generated, each font using a set of parametric data relatively small in size, without extrapolating from a single master outline or interpolating between two or more outlines. Since the generated character outlines are defined in terms of conventional mathematical constructs, they are easily reformatted into other digital font formats by the font engine, if necessary.

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Seattle, WA, United States of America

Paul M Higinbotham