The Font Magicians - Computerphile

Making fonts look good at low resolutions - many thought the problem insolvable - two men started Adobe and proved them wrong. Professor David Brailsford renders the story.
The Great 202 Jailbreak: • The Great 202 Jailbrea...
Mainframes & the Unix Revolution: • Mainframes and the Uni...
Upside Down Trees (Huffman Coding): • How Huffman Trees Work...
Typesetters in the '80's: • Typesetters in the '80...
Graphics Playlist: • Triangles and Pixels
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This video was filmed and edited by Sean Riley.
Computer Science at the University of Nottingham: bit.ly/nottscomputer
Computerphile is a sister project to Brady Haran's Numberphile. See the full list of Brady's video projects at: bit.ly/bradychannels

[@photosinensis]

I wouldn't mind some discussion about TeX and its variants while we're talking about typesetting.

[@PatGilliland]

Another vote for TeX and family.

[@TimeDilation]

Ditto.

[@resonance2001]

Sans Serif walks in to a bar. The barman says, "we don't serve your type in here."

[@Gabbos]

God I love this youtube channel but I love the prof even more. I could listen to him talk for hours and hours and will always want more. I wish he was my grandpa. Also, I really love that you guys put out full length videos. Thank you so much for assuming we have an attention span beyond a 12 year old child. Keep up the good work and don't keep me waiting to long for the next video!

[@bloodaid]

By the way he pronounces the word "Pixel", I just realized something: Pixel = Pic+Cell = Picture Cell My mind just imploded!

[@DaithiDublin]

Xerox really were the quiet developers behind lots of the computing elements we take for granted these days. In the mid 90's I had the opportunity to help install one of the first Print-On-Demand systems in Ireland using their DocuTech production printers. It was a 15 foot long beast of a machine that could spit out stitched booklets and book bodies ready for binding. All pagination and composition could be carried out via the onboard touch screen, which consisted of a wire mesh overlaid on the monitor. During the training programme at Xerox's Dublin offices our trainer let us into his cluttered little office to see his still functioning Xerox Star. He was _still_ using it in his everyday work and I got to play around with a little. I think our company were operating with Windows for Workgroups 3.11 at the time, and I remember thinking how clunky and quaint the mouse and the desktop environment on his Star were, compared to our superior kit! I wouldn't be at all surprised to find that our trainer, who would be long retired by now, is still using his beloved Star in his study. Well, that's how I'll choose to believe it anyway!

[@GateCrasherVI]

What an absolutely WONDERFUL video! As a young (29) amateur graphic artist with experience in an old family-owned printing company, I greatly enjoyed getting to hear some of the backstory of where the fonts I have taught myself to use came from, and how they were created. Thank you for the time and upload! -Coast of Texas.

[@sth128]

Can't wait for the story on true type fonts...

[@jkadoodle]

Can't wait to hear Professor Brailsford discuss true type fonts

[@trapfethen]

I really appreciate that he never once mixed up computer engineer and computer scientist.

[@YouHolli]

The graduation project of a friend of mine was a chess game written in Postscript. The user would enter his move via the printers menu and the printer would calculate its' move and print an updated board.and so on, etc., ad infinitum.

[@jacobs-h398]

I could literally listen to this guy's voice all day.

[@essentialdang]

I love how Professor Brailsford says "pixel", I'm going to start saying it like that from now on :D

[@Muzer0]

invalidusername It's actually an abbreviation of "picture element" so it kind of makes sense to pronounce it like that. Not that many people do, though!

[@RonJohn63]

"The problem was solved, essentially" Reminds me of the Kobayashi Maru.

[@DiegoAlifano]

I don't get tired of hearing this man talk about the history of computers, fonts and desktop publishing.

[@mailsprower1]

On the 17th minute, my fullscreen video suddenly crashed. The thing's that fullscreen is powered by Adobe Flash Player.

[@gummipalle]

Fonts are often owned property, you cant simply hand them out with your game, and you cant assume the user to have that 'cool one you like' installed. so learning the basic concept of fonts can save you development issues, and money. I was programming an LED-type display for a game-hud that works at various resolutions... Managing the whole alpha-bet, numbers, and special charachters, and making them readable in 5*6 LED characters, on scalable LED bulbs (3 to 20 or so pixels, AND look the same on various screen-sizes was something of a learning experience... Issues like minimum pixel-count for each LED, while maintaing the size ratio of the LED-matrix-display to game-screen area... and so on... Scaling things to look good isnt as easy to do as it is to imagine, with all those resolutions, aspect ratios, and so on out there... Lots of numbers arent so easily devidable, but you dont want to do TOO many manual exceptions, so it requires some planning... Which is why: Fonts are often owned property, you cant simply hand them out with your game, and you cant assume the user to have that 'cool one you like' installed. so learning the basic concept of fonts can save you development issues, and money.

[@LMacNeill]

Hey! They used my comment on the 202 Jailbreak video! I'm famous now. :-) To respond to a specific part of this video: I'd love to see Computerphile do a video about the Xerox PARC people and projects. That'd be fun!

[@GavinoFelix]

Dear God, this is the most pleasurable thing I have heard in months (and likely years if we're being honest). For the past 5 or 6 months I've been fixated on convincing people that this very topic is the coolest thing ever. As expected, said recipients of my rants haven't won too many friends... I guess it's some futile Luddite survivor's guilt from being a severely awkward bookworm who hid out in the public library growing up - who also happened to be on the 'remedial' side of the literacy spectrum...Many many hours spent perfecting 'appearing to be studiously reading' have finally paid off.

[@codediporpal]

Suddenly my 100ish DPI monitor seems really blurry.

[@Cz4rBDV5e8w]

Another excellent video. Every time I watch some from Computerphile, I always end up appreciating my PC more. The blinds and open window in the background were a bit jarring, though. Could you, maybe, watch out for that next time? Still an interesting video!

[@cjgj]

I wish he had gone more in depth into what the hints actually did. I feel like that's kind of the most important part--how they actually fixed the problem--but in the video, he just mentions it, and then moves on.

[@kyoung21b]

As always I thoroughly enjoyed professor Brailsford’s technical and historical wizardry and can’t help wonder why flicky bits hasn’t replaced serifs in common usage !?

[@iseslc]

senior cs proffessors always have the best stories!

[@htakahashi]

I love his videos. They are incredibly interesting. I could listen to him all day.

[@Snowcountry556]

The David Attenborough of computing

[@insu_na]

Thank the gods for Anti-Aliasing ;)

[@lukeaw]

I could listen to Professor Brailsford all day, he recounts the history of computer evolution with such fluency and clarity. Names everyone's heard of - Adobe, Linotype, PostScript, PARC - all have a story behind them, and this man can tell them. After all, a wizard is on first-name terms with Ken, Dennis and Brian.

[@laylconway6525]

Typesettingphile Loving these videos!

[@AltairImsai]

Great video. I used a program called Font Monster to try my hand at creating a font to be used with our 1AESS and 5ESS switch simulations. 'Nearly drove me nuts. I finally paid a font foundry to do the job. David, your videos are always a trip down memory lane for me. Thanks again

[@incorrectstuffthingy5647]

I need 8 hours of this man continously speaking

[@animowany111]

I love how fast this gets views, this was submitted literally 15s ago.

[@Evan490BC]

Professor Brailsford has this unique talent for storytelling. He can turn a (seemingly!) boring subject into an exciting story.

[@BassilioDahlan]

I'm loving these videos. Are there any plans for talking about typesetting systems like TeX in the upcoming videos??

[@blackflare]

These videos are the best, I love learning about the history of computers.

[@rydillo]

The things I would do to have your knowledge! I'm just grateful you make these videos, thank you!

[@mglenadel]

Boy, does that take me back to my graphic design work days!

[@tabaksme4313]

Amazing story! Thank you very much! I've been with graphics on personal computers from almost the very first days. Some of it I remember, some I may have forgotten.

[@ben_mjt]

Would love some more type-orientated videos. Really enjoyed this, thanks.

[@honkatatonka]

thank you for amazingly interesting history lessons!

[@edgeeffect]

Yes. Can we have a video about PARC. I remember having a quick go on one of the bitmapped terminals when the BBC and CP/M were "leading edge" and it "blew my mind"

[@DanielPCline]

I am floored on how much there is to fonts....I had no idea.

[@Semikami]

Such an insightful video!

[@Noobwarriking]

Will you talk about TeX and LaTeX?

[@MrCanigou]

Really fascinating teacher

[@alpenwasser6869]

Yes, another one! Don't ever let these stop! :D

[@jamesusespivot]

Btw, would you mind explaining typesetters for people who were born after printers were commonplace. Please?

[@Computerphile]

Hi, I think Professor Brailsford pretty much covers it in this 'Extra Bits' film EXTRA BITS - Printing and Typesetting History - Computerphile

[@jonathanl.1963]

I've never really thought much about fonts until now. Thanks for this interesting and well explained video.

[@jdgrahamo]

I love this. Thanks to all concerned.

[@croyfer]

I love these videos! Keep 'em coming ;-)

[@noseman123]

This is fascinating.

[@StefanTravis]

I remember - 92-94 - when300dpi was "high resolution". "Draft" meant 150dpi. People were amazed that "30%" shading at 300dpi actually came out at...30%!

[@SetMyLife]

Thanks for another one! :)

[@jamesusespivot]

Hello computer phill. Love your vids

[@AndresRodriguezGuapacha]

This is a great video!

[@kaioxygen]

I have no interest in fonts whatsoever but I find this guy a good imparter of knowledge.

[@ShamelessHorse]

I think Computerphile has found its Poliakoff. :)

[@j7ndominica051]

Hand hinted fonts look great even at ~100 dpi on screen and Epson dot matrix printers.

[@ReallyWemja]

loved the video and the accidental apple product placement.

[@3ventic]

Yay for fonts.

[@Tupster]

Super sampling does not really solve the aliasing problem, but I'll have to save my rant about that... Also, a 300 dpi printout is going to be much lighter and blurrier than it should if you apply super sampling. Hinting creates a sharp image and indeed is your only choice when your device only creates sharp images.

[@TimVerweij]

11:42 "Hints show" "all the places..." sounds a bit odd. :-)

[@tadeuszdolkowski]

Love it

[@linkVIII]

I actually enjoy this series more than the graphics one even though I do stuff with graphics.

[@Roxor128]

What if you rendered to 4-bit greyscale (50% coverage = 8) then turned the results to black and white?

[@andljoy]

I love your videos. remind me of some of my lectures in computer science but you make it way more interesting and you don't wear sandals with socks ( or at least i don't think you would ) as one of my lecturers did even in the middle of winter.

[@foreverseethe]

Before this video I never knew what 'serifs' meant and I never knew what 'True Type' referred to even though I have read them hundreds of times over 18 years using a computer.

[@TheDarkerPath]

This series on fonts is turning out to be a real treasure trove. Typography for the win!

[@WastedDad]

Now or then? What would you prefer to be in

[@SlosII]

I love how the man pronounces 'pixel'. You'd think he spends most of his summers in Spain....

[@nand3kudasai]

omg rendering a letter is a nightmare. let alone know the width of one in a language from east europe .

[@rynegade]

Moving the alignment in that regard seems perfectly fine to me as the left-right side bearing alignment would have been rounded off anyway and disappear regardless. Nothing wrong with saving users from doing stupid things with the system themselves

[@maagiapall]

Dat product placement

[@XPimKossibleX]

well what about only turning it on if the pixel was at least half way covered?

[@puffdong]

michael benzur You don't think they already thought of that?

[@XPimKossibleX]

Simon Magnusson i meant why they didn't mention it. it seems quite obvious haha

[@Aesculathehyena]

I heard that Xerox was actually the ones who started Ctrl-Z,X,C,V for the commands we know them as now. Not sure, but that's what I heard. Also, hinting for printing~ It rhymes!

[@GateCrasherVI]

I'd have to go back and re-watch / do a bit of research, but didn't he mention the "hinting" quite literally being developed by an (albeit ex) employee of Xerox? The copy and paste I believe was someone named Tesler.

[@rocketsensor]

What accent does professor Brailsworth have? It’s my favourite of the English accents.

[@jacobh1995]

My dad, a developer for the Big Apple Users Group in the late 70s and early 80s, claimed to be a primary contributor to the initiative that created vector fonts - among other computer development. Not sure how valid this is, but I would like to know.

[@jacobh1995]

And then something else about the first interconnection between two microprocessors - a typesetter and an Apple II. So you don't need 20k USD for typesetting computer hardware. Only a 2 thousand dollar Apple II. Which people claimed could not be done.

[@unvergebeneid]

Very right, 300 dpi looks horrible. And yet, they are trying to tell us that the 200-300 ppi Retina display will be enough for eternity. No it won't! Yes, I am aware of the fact that you can't compare laser printer resolution and screen resolution but 300 dpi ink jet printers also produce horrible text and anti-aliasing is ultimately just a hack. What you want is a 1-bit output with enough pixels so you won't notice it.

[@squirrelfishfrog]

Am I mistaken or did this video actually neglect to explain how hinting is done? They only explained it in human words. That explanation is the same as saying: "please computer make font look nice". The longer it kept going the more it frustrated me that they never explain the how. In what way can you encode "don't round this down to 0" so that a pixel level decision can be made....?

[@TheRealFOSFOR]

Does this have anything to do with Vector Graphics ?

[@blenderpanzi]

Yeah, and Helvetica Neue still has horrible hinting and it's used by many websites anyway (because Apple uses it, therefore everybody else uses it, no matter if it will be displayed on a retina display or not). I disabled the font on my system so that a better fallback font is used.

[@soulcatch]

I wonder if Professor Brailsford is one of the people who likes to spin their rings. I gem on his ring is in a different position in almost every video with him.

[@WillBreaksStuff]

This is a subject I love and am very interested in. But the camera work was very distracting.

[@he1986]

Why couldn't the designers just redesign the letters to work within the constraints of the 300dpi?

[@dipi71]

The problem lies in the »just«. It’s prohibitively laborious and expensive to get this kind of manual redesign done in time by professionals.

[@he1986]

hmm.. I cant think it would take so much time sitting in a paintlike system and pressing which pixels to paint black and which not and generate an algorithm out of that. At least compared to all the man hours he said they used on this "converting algorithm". I could do this on my old Casio calculator...

[@dipi71]

Borley4 How much would Adobe have to pay you to do this as a lifelong career as a designer: monotonously tweak pixel representations of already existing fonts instead of, oh, create new ones, for example? I bought a few hand-optimized 360dpi Signum!3 pixelfonts for my matrix printer from the Behne brothers - really expensive, and so inflexible, compared to Type1/True-/OpenType scalable vector fonts.

[@rynegade]

Everyone here is talking about antialiasing as if it's the same problem as here. You might be surprised to learn that modern cg for broadcast tv without using AA runs into the same problem as here but MUCH worse because of screen sizes. AA fixes the problem to some level but because of issues with the depth buffer, it's still often considered unsuitable for most broadcasters.

[@YouHolli]

I demand a video about LaTex. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaTeX

[@KnowledgePlaylists]

***** I'm a website & graphic designer, this video was fascinating to me!

[@thesenamesaretaken]

Companies like Bell and Xerox didn't own the IP on the inventions of their employees?

[@CbarMiiXaaS]

Why does he say pix-elle?

[@KnickKnackPatty]

For the outline over the grid, why didn't they decide to fill in any box with 1/2 of the shape in the box or 1/3?

[@cinemaipswich4636]

The original "Graphical User Interface, GUI" was invented by Xerox. They sold it to Microsoft. The "Disc Operating System, DOS" was invented by IBM. They sold it to Microsoft.

[@zwz.zdenek]

Why didn't they just render the letter upsized in memory and then downsample it with 8-bit greyscale, then convert to BW using Floyd-Steinberg or something?

[@apoorvasharmaa]

Is they now factrol mathematical approch to solve this problem

[@isfiyiywafibc6qaiiiiiiiiii570]

All these years and Windows clear type still can't get fonts right... I think I'll stick to freetype.

[@limitless1692]

Wow soo interesting So everytime when i will see H I will think that sometimes cheating is a solution ... Hahha , awesome video :) Thanks Professor

[@PARAMETATRONIC]

Bad luck brain that Xerox PARC

[@Jixejo]

not enough numbers to buy the high-digit priced printer :o

[@rafagd]

Xerox PARC always creates everything and never gets the money? lol

[@codediporpal]

avhuf Open source? No way. They licensed that stuff for money.

[@jazzlover06]

Pick Cell

[@Jivvi]

Pixél

[@rursus8354]

Fontographer? Isn't that a little bit cowardly? What's wrong with hacking OTF in pure hex?

[@jamesusespivot]

N mind