One of the early milestones within the Harfbuzz project’s Boring Expansion Spec is the specification of an “avar v2” table, which defines how axes can be composed from other axes. This takes Font Bureau’s Parametric Axes system and Underware’s HOI (Higher Order Interpolation for Variable Fonts) to the next level; Crossland and Penney will demonstrate the file size reductions already proven and the typography improvements now made possible.
Date
Thursday, October 27th 2022
Venue
Online
Mom, You Sure Can Rehydrate a Pizza
Speaker
Dave Crossland
Lead Program Manager
Google
Dave Crossland attended the first Libre Graphics Meeting in 2006, and became fascinated with the potential of libre licensing to improve design. Since then, he has worked to liberate typography, mainly as a program manager for Google Fonts. He also regularly contributes to the Crafting Type, Font Bakery, and Runebender projects.
Speaker
Laurence Penney
I’m a software developer specializing in font technology and CSS typography, with decades of experience working with type designers, type foundries, font distributors and font system engineers. I am known as an expert on variable fonts and hinting, and often give talks and workshops on these subjects to conferences and universities. My clients include Google, Microsoft, Adobe and numerous independent type foundries. I was a key member of the MyFonts team from its conception in 2000 until 2017. My Axis-Praxis website (2016) helps font makers test their fonts, and helps designers understand variable fonts in a page design environment. My open-source Samsa web app (2019) interactively visualizes the mechanics of variable fonts in innovative ways. FauxFoundry (2019), a joint project with Irene Vlachou, synthesizes matching Greek fonts for webfonts that lack Greek, using parametric variable fonts. I have an interest in cartography, and am researching “one-dimensional” route maps.