[CREATE] ink/paper simulation

[Alastair M. Robinson]

Hi :)

Alexandre Prokoudine wrote:

> Well, one of the users came up with a very smart idea: a (Corel
> Painter-like) tool to simulate real paper and inks to see what
> actually would happen to glyphs printed with a small font size with
> different inks on different surfaces and with different colors, taking
> trapping into consideration as well, especially on problematic parts
> of shapes (narrow serifs, stroke variation etc., I fancy). A
> font-proof, in fact. So a type designer could see this and apply
> tweaks to his design.

Hmmmm - very interesting idea.  There are a huge number of variables to 
take into account, though.

I see several aspects to this, though there may well be others that I've 
missed.

1. Simulating paper colour - easy enough given colour profiles for media 
and monitor.

2. Simulating the effect of media texture.  This is where the effects 
used by natural media painting programs are relevant - though I suspect 
they're more of an artistic effect than rigorous simulation.

2, Simulating the distortion caused by compromises in printing 
technology - i.e. such as, (a) how easily do the enclosure in an "e" 
fill in as ink spreads on uncoated paper, (b) how easily do strokes 
start to disappear if you attempt to reverse them out of solid black or 
(God forbid!) a composite colour, (c) how does the halftone screen 
interact with character shapes at small sizes when various colours are 
chosen.

> 1. Is anybody else thinking that it's a good idea?

Defintely

> 5. Is anybody volunteering? :)

Sadly, I no longer have enough time to make good progress on my existing 
projects, so I can't take on anything else at the moment.  Interesting 
ideas though, and I hope someone will be able to do something with it.

All the best,
--
Alastair M. Robinson