Mathematical Typography,
Abstract
The old and well-developed traditions of typesetting of mathematical symbols have become too expensive. A method needs to be devised for unambiguously specifying mathematical manuscripts in such a way that they can easily be manipulated by machines. Such languages, when properly designed, can be learned quickly by authors and their typists, yet manuscripts in this form will lead directly to high quality plates for the printer with little or no human intervention. A second step in the solution makes use of classical mathematics to design the shapes of the letters and symbols themselves. It is possible to give a rigorous definition of the exact shape of the letter 'a', for example, in such a way that infinitely many styles (bold, extended, sans-serif, italic, etc.) are obtained from a single definition by changing only a few parameters. When the same is done for the other letters and symbols, we obtain a mathematical definition of type fonts, a definition that can be used on all machines both now and in the future. The main significance of this approach is that new symbols can readily be added in such a way that they are automatically consistent with the old ones.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 01, 1978
- Accession Number
- ADA054143
Entities
People
- Donald Knuth
Organizations
- Stanford University