The desire to computerise and accurately represent contours ofcharacters has seen an increased emphasis as more and more applicationsendeavour to seek benefits from the digital form. The latter lendsitself to be exploited by fast processors and the resulting output to bedisplayed not just on electronic devices such as computer monitors andlaser printers, but also on numerically controlled machines. These inpractice are used to generate desired outlines on paper, metal, plasticor wood by means of cutting and engraving. The process of computerisingfont outlines, however, embodies the common problems of domain changeapproximations and truncations. In the case under consideration, thecapturing phase is best undertaken by means of mathematical splines,where a series of spline segments are connected together to form acomputer model of the original. The digitisation phase of representingthe modelled image on a finite resolution output device tends to be themore dominant concern. This is not just because of the transformationprocess (going from semi-continuous to discrete form), but also becausethe resulting image needs to embrace the distinct features of a font,has to be aesthetically acceptable, and requires to be in a form whichis legible. This paper attempts to address some of the concernsencountered by modern typographers. It reports on a development of aninteractive system to facilitate a feature-based design approach. Thisuses geometric constraints to express spatial relationships within, andbetween, font features
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