
Nara – the typeface that never existed (2011) - thiagoharry
https://www.typotheque.com/articles/nara_-_the_typeface_that_never_existed
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ivanbakel
The "non-existence" of fonts which are possible in the classification system
reminds me of a similar idea in domestic cats - a graph which compiled how
markings are derived from genetic factors [1], and which then speculated on
new kinds of cats which by all rights should exist.

It's interesting to consider that we can, through cultural progress, explore
some space of ideas and then look back with a new kind of categorisation to
see what we've missed. It's a strange put-down of the idea that innovation
really means trying everything.

[1] [https://ixquick-
proxy.com/do/spg/show_picture.pl?l=english&r...](https://ixquick-
proxy.com/do/spg/show_picture.pl?l=english&rais=1&oiu=https%3A%2F%2Fs-media-
cache-
ak0.pinimg.com%2Foriginals%2F1c%2F7b%2F39%2F1c7b39084d8652c8597a7b459d8359f5.jpg&sp=e71f7e224ca8124a865042bf108e1fba)

~~~
neoeldex
This happened in juggling as well, describing the patterns in a notation
allowed people to find new ways to throw objects:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dwgusHjA0Y

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pavlov
There’s an interesting point of view in this quote that I feel is generally
applicable to software beyond the specific field of typography:

 _”...digital type creation was far beyond the reach of a student from Eastern
Europe since URW’s Ikarus font digitising system required an unimaginable
investment in technologies, and Macintosh was still only a distant legend (and
possibly still under US trade embargo). But soon a friend introduced me to the
free Metafont programming language by Donald Knuth, which could run on a basic
PC”_

The East European student was extremely motivated to create a digital font
design but didn’t have access to tools his Western counterparts could take for
granted. So he turned to a system (Metafont) that was designed from a
completely different perspective than the mainstream, and used it to produce a
work of unique beauty and complexity.

Place this story in the context of today’s hardware. Who is the East European,
and what’s the technology that he/she lacks access to? Maybe there’s somebody
in India with incredible creative vision but only a low-end Android phone,
just waiting to discover an expressive solution, no matter if way outside of
mainstream Western software expectations.

~~~
posterboy
There is no way to romanticize the tedious labor of meticulously scanning an
image by hand, so to speak.

~~~
pavlov
It's not quite that. Metafont models type using pen strokes rather than
outlines, so the process of translating paper designs into the format couldn't
be accomplished by just scanning the outline -- but of course it would be a
great aid.

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posterboy
The letters in the image at the end of the article don't match the glyphs
following the link at the end of the article.

It's a neat swing in the letters, in the former, but the latter I find like
most fonts converges to the same principle base type for reasons of
readability.

------
yesenadam
(2011)

~~~
dang
Thanks, added.

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omeid2
> he taught me to respect the historical development of typography, as well as
> to disdain uninformed experimentation for experimentation’s sake.

Why not? I think experimentation is heaps of fun.

~~~
pm215
I think the word 'uninformed' here is key -- after all, the entire concept of
the font being discussed is an experiment (of the 'what would happen if we
look in this gap in this classification system?' kind). But it's not an
uninformed experiment, it's one that arises from knowledge of what's been done
historically, which is why it's interesting. Uninformed experimentation would
be more likely to just reinvent some previous idea, badly. (Not that
recapitulating previous work is inherently bad; but the idea of an informed
experiment would be to recapitulate some development knowing that that was
what you were doing.)

~~~
omeid2
I somehow missed that. It makes a lot of sense now. Thanks!

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anotheryou
Looks quite horrible with the webfont (seems nice otherwise though)

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Awtem
really like it with the exception of left and right square brackets "[]" which
are horribly misaligned IMHO ...

~~~
pluma
Font playground:
[https://www.typotheque.com/fonts/nara](https://www.typotheque.com/fonts/nara)

Yes, this seems odd. The angle brackets, curly braces and parentheses seem to
align nicely but the square brackets are entirely different sizes.

