> From: Nicholas Bodley [mailto:nbodley@...]
> Sent: Sunday, February 27, 2005 1:27 PM


> From the standpoint of a type designer, does Metafont offer an
> environment
> that has what type designers want and like, or is it a poor fit to the
> task? I'm presuming the best, because Knuth is a very capable fellow.
> Nevertheless, the apparent scarcity of Metafonts might suggest that

type

> designers are not flocking to use it to design fonts. Of course, that
> might simply be because a significant amount of effort is needed to

learn

> it.

Development of digital fonts is a learned skill no matter what formats
are used. But there's another relevant factor which I mentioned earlier
but you failed to consider: Metafont fonts can be used with one niche
product, whereas fonts that use TrueType or Postscript outline formats
can be used with a wide variety of products on most platforms. There's
also a matter of tools: lots of tools exist for working with SFNT font
files, far more than for Metafont.



Peter Constable