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How many shapes in the typographic universe are made of strokes remains an unanswered question. For now, it is fair to say there is a scale between two extremes – letter shapes that are explicitly defined by strokes and letter shapes that aren’t defined by strokes – outliners. Based on this logic, it can be argued that a significant amount of letter shapes are defined by strokes.
Skeleton is an element of the graphical user interface that defines a path of the tool imprint and position of anchored outliners.
Imprint is the shape of a digital tool tip that draws a stroke shape by rendering along a skeleton.
Stroke is a letter shape created by writing or drawing with a physical or digital stroke tool
Stroke is a letter shape created by writing or drawing with a physical or digital stroke tool
Stroke in typography almost never keeps the same width along the skeleton. It is important to stress that the stroke is modulated. Noodrzj (Noordzij 2006) coined the stroke concept with modularity as stroke contrast. The stroke contrast is created by 1) imprinting the shape of the writing tool, changing the shape by 2) pressing the tool expand imprint, and 3) rotating the tool to rotate the imprint. A designer can use all the perks at the same time.
The translation is the contrast produced by the broad-nibbed pen. In skeleton-type design, the translation effect is achieved by any imprint shape that differs from the circle. The circle imprint renders a so-called monolinear stroke with literary nil translation contrast.
Contrast tilt is a default contrast angle related to the writing medium or related to a skeleton. By tilting the contrast, we can achieve the so-called reversed contrast.
Expansion is the contrast usually produced with a pointed pen or brush, whereby increasing the pressure makes the two halves of the pen part, thus causing a gradual thickening of the stroke. In Skeleton type design, the expansion effect is achieved by various scales of the Imprint.
Rotation is the contrast produced by the rotation of a pen. In skeleton type design, the rotation effect is achieved by various angles of imprint.
The outliner is a letter shape created by drawing with a digital stroke tool, typically Bézier curves.
The final result after converting strokes to outlines for font production. Individual components can be merged into single outline shapes.The outliner is a letter shape created by drawing with a digital stroke tool, typically Bézier curves.