[OpenFontLibrary] versioning

[Emma Jane Hogbin]

On Monday 11 May 2009 5:58:57 pm Schrijver wrote:
> I was thinking, what role does that give the typeface, or the type
> designer, then…
> But I think you could see it as the type designer (whether he or she
> is one person, or a project) is the one who makes prototypes
> in the cognitive sense of the word;
> models.

<idea type="crazy">

This is part of what I am most interested in. Part of the conversation I've 
been having with a few different "traditional" craftsmen is the relationship of 
these four ideas:
- Vision (how the "thing" ought to look when finished)
- Technique (chosen media, toolkit, programming languages)
- Craft (your technical abilities)
- Reception (licensing and distribution)

I am especially interested in how we can encourage designers who have vision, 
but no experience in digital "craft." I'm also interested in enticing 
traditional (closed source) font foundries to release a "vision" of a font and 
to have the masses do the actual work of converting the font from an idea to a 
TTF (or whatever) file. How many letters does it take to get a full vision of a 
font? Do you need an entire alphabet, or can an apprentice create a font from 
a sketch of the letters, a, q, g t and e? 

If we think back to traditional craft and guilds, the master craftsman would 
not necessarily do the work themselves, rather they would have the vision 
implemented by the apprentice. And the apprentice, through practicing their 
craft under supervision, would learn to develop their own vision. Of course 
this is all a very romantic idea of how guilds and craft work, but sometimes 
it's fun to be a little bit romantic and to pull out the parts of a practice 
that are worth promoting and encouraging.

</idea>

regards,
emma :)