Nicholas Bodley scripsit:

> I'm not sure I understand what Metafont is, btw, but if it
> makes sense in this message, that's sufficient, for now.

It's a language that allows you to state algorithms (programs) that
describe the details of glyphs. By giving these algorithms parameters,
you can create families of fonts whose glyphs covary in appropriate
ways such as the ones you mention.

The passage in question used Knuth's own Computer Modern font family,
continuously tweaking each of the 25-odd parameters that apply to
every letter (there are more parameters that apply only to certain
letters or to a single letter) by 1/nth of its complete range, where
n is the number of letters in the passage. Each and every letter,
therefore, is (indistinguishably to the eye) in a distinct font.

--
John Cowan http://www.ccil.org/~cowan jcowan@...
Be yourself. Especially do not feign a working knowledge of RDF where
no such knowledge exists. Neither be cynical about RELAX NG; for in
the face of all aridity and disenchantment in the world of markup,
James Clark is as perennial as the grass. --DeXiderata, Sean McGrath