>> This is pretty interesting. Is it art, is it a toy? Make your own TT >fonts created by a genetic algorithm!
http://alphabet.tmema.org >Thank you for a very interesting link. I have tried making a number of >fonts and have really enjoyed both experimenting with The Alphabet Synthesis >Machine, which can be run directly on the web using a Java enabled browser, >and also experimenting offline afterwards with the fonts that are produced. > I have continued to experiment with using the Alphabet Synthesis Machine. Readers might like to know that I have included a few images produced using some of the founts that I have produced in the Art Gallery in our family webspace. A direct link to the Art Gallery is as follows. http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~ngo/art00000.htm The images in the Art Gallery that use founts produced using the Alphabet Synthesis Machine were produced using PowerPoint, then using the Save as HTML option to produce the gif format files. The sizes were then trimmed using Photo Editor, as a special size was needed. Two of the pictures used the founts with the WordArt facility, the other used the fount Cobalt glass directly in a text box, with the character formatted to a large size. As the founts are TrueType founts, they display well at large sizes and the elegance of the designs that can be produced using the Alphabet Synthesis Machine can be observed. A technique that I use when using WordArt with these founts is to first produce a character using a text box, then produce the character using WordArt. I then adjust the size and aspect ratio of the WordArt object so that the two characters are the same size and shape. I then delete the text box character. This ensures that the character displayed using WordArt, where lines and fill can be separately set to different colours, are of the correct aspect ratio for the fount. As well as directly displaying individual characters from some founts as art, I am also experimenting with using some founts in other ways. For example, for some founts I use Microsoft Paint to display a character at 72 point. I then make 3 copies of the display. I reflect one horizontally, I reflect one vertically and I reflect one both horizontally and vertically. I then combine the four images in a 2 by 2 format display, so as to produce a large symmetrical fleuron. I then trim that to size and produce a gif file using Photo Editor, making the background transparent. This produces an original artistic design suitable for a web page. This technique can also be used in PowerPoint using WordArt, so that the lines and fill of the characters can be in different colours. Another example is to use some founts as background to a large capital letter. One can then use a background of a plain rectangular area with a border in a different colour, the character in a third colour on top, then the English capital letter on top of that. This effect is best when the fount from the Alphabet Synthesis Machine is one that has lines that reach into the corners of a rectangular area. This can be easily achieved when using the Alphabet Synthesis Machine by setting the handmass control at minimum. Differently, the large sweeping curves of a fount such as Pools of glass in ceramic used in the Art Gallery are produced by not altering the handmass control from its starting position but by reducing the friction control to its minimum position. The use of the width control is also desirable as I have found that some founts that are low in friction can be difficult to display as the tops can get clipped off in Paint and in small sizes in text boxes in PowerPoint, though Word Art in PowerPoint seems to always display the characters in full, though sometimes in the wrong aspect ratio. I am thinking that a fount produced by the Alphabet Synthesis Machine would look good as large floor tiles, where the tiles would be made from stone fired clay consisting of a terracotta body with an inlay of the character in a white clay. The http://alphabet.tmema.org website also has links to other sites about art. William Overington 26 April 2002 www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~ngo
