Re: Feta font modifications by Janek

[David Rogers]

Werner LEMBERG <address@hidden> writes:

> [wearing the FreeType maintainer hat]

> Howver, my opinion is that we don't *need* Multiple Masters in
> general.  What we really need is an option to select a stylistic
> variant which contains a set of finely tuned glyphs representing a
> certain style, and OpenType provides the perfect means for that,
> namely up to 20 stylistic sets (features `ss01' to `ss20').

I agree with this line of thought; from my point of view, the ability to
slightly morph a font in a controlled way in a particular dimension or
set of dimensions is technologically brilliant but not of sufficient
practical use for Lilypond. It doesn't allow for style changes, only
dimension changes. In fact the whole practical use of multiple masters
was *to keep the style exactly the same*, while just tweaking the width
(or the boldness, the degree of slant, whatever dimensions were built in
by the font designers). I'm afraid in Lilypond's context a
multiple-master font would turn out to be a time-consuming toy that only
its individual designer would ever really make much use of.

What people would really make use of would be the ability to select *a
different font altogether*, one that had a starkly different style -
including for example significant tweaks to the spacing algorithm,
differently-shaped rests, different relations of stem thickness to note
size to staff size, different dynamics font, brand-new clefs, "the
works". (And, in an ideal situation, such a font would be able to be
part of an integrated over-all style template, such as the one under
construction by Kieren. My sense is that he's already going in just the
right direction, and simply lacks time and tools.) At this point in
history, there are quite a few recognized and popular visual styles for
typesetting music. The attraction is being able to use "this style" _or_
"that style"; being able to create an intermediate "compromise style"
between any two of them is IMO "a solution in search of a problem".

There are (were?) situations where multiple-masters are useful. But music
isn't one of them IMO.

-- 
David R