Abstract
Typefaces have become an essential resource used by graphic designs to communicate. Some designers opt to create their own typefaces or custom lettering that better suits each design project. This increases the demand for novelty in type design, and consequently the need for good technological means to explore new thinking and approaches in the design of typefaces. In this work, we continue our research on the automatic evolution of glyphs (letterforms or designs of characters). We present an evolutionary framework for the automatic generation of type stencils based on fitness functions designed by the user. The proposed framework comprises two modules: the evolutionary system, and the fitness function design interface. The first module, the evolutionary system, operates a Genetic Algorithm, with a novelty search mechanism, and the fitness assignment scheme. The second module, the fitness function design interface, enables the users to create fitness functions through a responsive graphical interface, by indicating the desired values and weights of a set of behavioural features, based on machine learning approaches, and morphological features. The experimental results reveal the wide variety of type stencils and glyphs that can be evolved with the presented framework and show how the design of fitness functions influences the outcomes, which are able to convey the preferences expressed by the user. The creative possibilities created with the outcomes of the presented framework are explored by using one evolved stencil in a design project. This research demonstrates how Evolutionary Computation and Machine Learning may address challenges in type design and expand the tools for the creation of typefaces.
Highlights
Typefaces are an essential resource employed by graphic designers [1], who are always willing to experiment with type and to explore new thinking, tools, and techniques
The evaluation of each stencil consists in the computation of (i) behaviour features, related to how the stencil performs in drawing glyphs for the target characters, and (ii) morphology features, related to its structure and components
The evolutionary process aims at maximising the value of Equation (1), whose theoretical optimum corresponds to a stencil that simultaneously matches all features to their target values according to Equation (2)
Summary
Typefaces are an essential resource employed by graphic designers [1], who are always willing to experiment with type and to explore new thinking, tools, and techniques. The creation of a typeface is a laborious process, involving the design of several glyphs for different characters. This, along with the increasing demand for new type design work, increases the need for good technological means to assist the designer in the creation of a typeface. We consider that most of the prominent software design tools tend to bias and limit the designers, who become accustomed to work and think in terms of the primitives that these tools provide, the workflow they induce, and the boundaries, implicit or explicit, that they establish. We argue that it is as important to master and exploit the tools at hand, as it is to challenge those tools, by modifying them or inventing new ones that suit unique ideas and design projects
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