Responsive Type

Straight from Processing Blogs, and right back again, here's an interesting link that explores the adaptation of print-based type forms to the digital medium. We already see this a little bit in some more clever browsers, where large type is anti-aliased, whereas smaller type is not. This project takes it a little bit further, with a scale-aware typeface that modifies itself depending on it's size on the screen. From the site:

The current program only runs one Style that allows the font to respond to scale, at small point sizes simplifying its form to give greater legibility, then responding to the display nature of fonts at large point sizes by increasing in complexity.

This carries nicely from some Maedean ideas about creating tools that are rooted in the digital world, rather than in print. What could happen to type if it were to forget about it's use in print and develop instead for pixel-rendering? Apart from some pixel fonts, I'm not sure that this has been explored in detail.

I'd like to see some more Styles - the photo on the main page seems to imply that there are more to come. I find the existing Style clever in concept but a bit lacking in execution... I'll eagerly await updates!