On Thu, 20 Jan 2005 13:37:03 -0000, Richard Wordingham
<richard.wordingham@...> wrote:

>
>
> --- In qalam@yahoogroups.com, "Nicholas Bodley" <nbodley@...> wrote:
>> Btw, is there any need or use for quartic or higher-order splines in
>> computer typography?

> Bear in mind that true type fonts only use quadratic splines!
>
> Richard.

Indeed, and to my semi-educated esthetic eyes, they can look quite good.
Cubic splines can be quite beautiful. Piet Hein's superellipses, with the
proper parameters, are some of the most-beautiful shapes (such as for the
outline of a table top) that I know of. I suspect that a type face based
on superellipses could be extraordinarily beautiful. (This reminds me: is
there something unusual about the curves in Melior?)

--
Nicholas Bodley /*|*\ Waltham, Mass.
Zapf Humanist fan