Typst makes big strides

80 points by isuffix

snej

Most fonts are distributed in a set of files containing their glyphs in different weights, in variations such as italic, bold, and so on. A recent development in the world of typography is the advent of variable fonts, which can contain all their variations in a single file.

Font nerd here. That’s true, but omits the big deal, which is that the variations can be continuous. So a variable font with “weight” as an axis has not just one or two bold variants but an infinite number, as the glyphs smoothly interpolate their control points.

chrismorgan

Yeah, we already had a widely-deployed way of grouping variations into a single file for 25–30 years, TrueType Collections.
5d22b

This "recent development" sounds, in effect, like Metafont, something TeX had 40–50 years ago. I'm not claiming Metafont is practical to use, and LWN says variable fonts "saves space", which I think is an advantage over Metafont, but the lack of mention of Metafont makes me wonder whether Typst are familiar with what they're trying to supplant.
- trenchant
  
  Variable fonts do not come from Typst. They are supported in the browser and descend from OpenType, while Metafont is bitmap only and seems to be dead / LaTeX only.
  - 5d22b
    
    To clarify, I didn't mean to suggest otherwise.
- isuffix
  
  That's still a bit condescending. Typst didn't create variable fonts, nor is it particularly interested in redefining font technologies or file formats. Implementing variable font support was mostly about supporting a technology users were asking for. The variable font issue got to 147 upvotes before it was completed; only two open issues still have more. No one yet has posted an issue asking for MetaFont support.
  - 5d22b
    
    No one yet has posted an issue asking for MetaFont support.
    
    I don't think using Metafont would be practical or suitable for a modern project such as Typst, but I would have been reassured to see it mentioned as prior art.
- p0llard
  
  The author of the article isn’t affiliated with Typst as far as I can tell, so I don’t think the lack of any mentions of Metafont in this article is any indication as to whether the Typst authors are familiar with Metafont or not.
colindean

I really have to give a shout out to Typesetter as an excellent, simple Typst editor for Linux. I've had to write a surprising number of simple correspondence letters in the last 18 months since moving for the first time in almost 15 years. This simple editor made that process so nice and quick, to be able to produce a templated letter with automatic date updates and some light markup beyond what I would do in just a boring plain text editor.
cyberia

I wrote my master's thesis in Typst. Good stuff.
videah

I recently rewrote my personal website entirely in Typst, it’s on the cusp of becoming really good for blogging