Computers & Typesetting, Volume C: The Metafont Book

Computers & Typesetting #C

by Donald Ervin Knuth, Duane Bibby (Illustrator)

METAFONT, created by author Donald E. Knuth, is a computer language that allows you to produce professional quality typefaces using mathematical type design. "The METAFONTbook," a user's guide and reference manual, enables readers with only minimal computer science or word processing experience to master the basic as well as the more advanced areas of METAFONT programming.

Readers will learn how to write a program for each letter or symbol of a typeface. Using METAFONT, it is possible to customize a type design that already exists, or even to create an entire alphabet from scratch. It is particularly easy to create logos or special symbols. Advanced users will enjoy the freedom and artistry that METAFONT allows in creating original typefaces.

Knuth's familiar wit, and illustrations specially drawn by Duane Bibby, add a light touch to an unusually readable software manual.

Genres: Programming, Reference, Technology, Computers

376 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Donald Ervin Knuth, born January 10th 1938, is a renowned computer scientist and Professor Emeritus of the Art of Computer Programming at Stanford University.

Author of the seminal multi-volume work The Art of Computer Programming ("TAOCP"), Knuth has been called the "father" of the analysis of algorithms, contributing to the development of, and systematizing formal mathematical techniques for, the rigorous analysis of the computational complexity of algorithms, and in the process popularizing asymptotic notation.

In addition to fundamental contributions in several branches of theoretical computer science, Knuth is the creator of the TeX computer typesetting system, the related METAFONT font definition language and rendering system, and the Computer Modern family of typefaces.

A prolific writer and scholar, Knuth created the WEB/CWEB computer programming systems designed to encourage and facilitate literate programming, and designed the MMIX instruction set architecture.