Digital type font providing typographic feature transformation capability

Claim 1

A computer-readable type font descriptor module for use in connection with a digital computer executing a program to output text characters in a blended typeface by selective operation on a generic base font, comprising: a computer-readable medium adapted to store at least one computer-readable file of predetermined configuration; stored on said medium, at least one computer-readable file containing stored data representing relative weightings to be given features of first and second fonts when blending them, data comprising an indicia representing the first font, data comprising an indicia representing the second font, data and logic instructions for controlling the operation of the computer which reads the at least one file in conjunction with the execution of said program, said at least one file including in one or more identifiable locations, data and instructions comprising specifications for use by said program to operate upon or with said generic base font to perform transformation operations upon portions of the generic base font corresponding to typographic design features and to produce as output therefrom images of characters corresponding to those of the blended typeface created by relatively weighting the features of the first and second fonts, wherein: the data and instructions comprising specifications for use by said program to operate upon or with said generic base font include a blend descriptor file that includes a first font identification number, a second font identification number, and a blend percentage representing the relative weightings to be given the first and second fonts when blended; and the second font identification number refers to a blended font.

Claim 3

A method for creating a blended font, the method comprising: retrieving a generic base font having a set of design variables and a set of characters; retrieving a first font descriptor file and a second font descriptor file, each descriptor file containing a value for each of the design variables of the generic base font; blending the first font descriptor file and the second font descriptor file to create an intermediate font descriptor file, the intermediate font descriptor file containing a value for each of the design variables of the generic base font, wherein blending includes: for at least one corresponding design variable in each of the first and second descriptor files: for at least one character of the generic base font: generating a blended value which is a function of the values for the design variable in the first and second descriptor files; and placing the blended value as the value for the corresponding design variable in the intermediate font descriptor file.

Claim 4

A method for creating a blended font, the method comprising: retrieving a generic base font having a set of design variables and a set of characters; retrieving a first font descriptor file and a second font descriptor file, each descriptor file containing a value for each of the design variables of the generic base font; blending the first font descriptor file and the second font descriptor file to create an intermediate font descriptor file, the intermediate font descriptor file containing a value for each of the design variables of the generic base font, wherein blending includes: for at least one corresponding design variable in each of the first and second descriptor files: for at least one character of the generic base font: generating a blended value which is a function of the values for the design variable in the first and second descriptor files; and placing the blended value as the value for the corresponding design variable in the intermediate font descriptor file.