Some METAFONT Techniques
Résumé
This paper presents a few ideas on how to solve certain geometrical problems arising very often in character design, not directly solvable by METAFONT's plain macros. The first part of the paper presents two geometrical problems: the "k problem" and the "x problem", their solutions using dichotomy, and a different solution using path intersections. The latter was proposed earlier on the net by the author; although geometrically correct, it does not work in real-world METAFONT practice: a nice example of METAFONT code to avoid.
The second part of the paper presents two simple macros for drawing "loose" Bézier curves; in a sense, the opposite of the tension operator. Finally, the third part solves a problem stated by Alan Hoenig: how to extract text and data from a METAFONT run, without using the log file. This is done in a straightforward manner by running a Flex-generated preprocessor over the GF file: the Flex code for this utility is given in Appendix B.
Domaines
Traitement du texte et du document
Origine : Fichiers éditeurs autorisés sur une archive ouverte