It is argued that readers are likely to carry away from Donald Knuth's article "The Concept of a Meta-Font" a falsely optimistic view of the extent to which the design of typefaces and letterforms can be mechanized through an approach depending on describing letterforms by specifying the settings of a large number of parameters. Through a comparison to mathematical logic, it is argued that no such set of parameters can capture the essence of any semantic category. Some different ways of thinking about the problem of the "spirit" residing behind any letterform are suggested, connecting to current research issues in the field of artificial intelligence.
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Publish Date
Fall 1982
Publisher
College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning, University of Cincinnati,
University of Cincinnati
Language
English
Pages
30
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Metafont, Metamathematics, and Metaphysics: Comments on Donald Knuth's Article "The Concept of a Meta-Font"
Fall 1982, College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning, University of Cincinnati, University of Cincinnati
Electronic resource
in English
- Volume 16, number 1
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Book Details
First Sentence
"Donald Knuth has spent the past several years working on a system allowing him to control many aspects of the design of his forthcoming books—from the typesetting and layout down to the very shapes of the letters!"
Table of Contents
The "Mathematization of Categories" and Metamathematics
Page 309
An Intuitive Picture of Gödel's Theorem
Page 311
A Misleading Claim for Metafont
Page 316
Joint Parametrization of Two Typefaces: A Far Cry from Parametrizing One Typeface
Page 318
Interpolating between an Arbitrary Pair of Typefaces
Page 320
"A Posteriori" Knobs and the Frame Problem of AI
Page 322
A Total Unification of All Typefaces?
Page 324
The Essence of "A"-ness is Not Geometrical
Page 326
Chauvinism versus Open-Mindedness: Fixed Questionnaires versus Fluid Roles
Page 326
The "A" Spirit
Page 329
Happy Roles, Unhappy Roles, and Quirk-Notes
Page 329
Modularity of Roles
Page 330
Typographical Niches and Rival Categories
Page 331
The Intermingling of Platonic Essences
Page 331
Letter and Spirit
Page 335
References
Page 337
Edition Notes
Pages 309–338
The Physical Object
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Excerpts
Page 309,
added by Altercari.
Abstract
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