firehose

Methods of type design have shifted over the years — from moveable type printing presses to copper plate engraving to modern design software — but fonts are still largely created by hand. And with globally successful fonts containing nearly 600 characters in various languages, a single typeface with several weights and styles can take a year or more to design.

A new algorithm places shadow gradients on typefaces

Now, design company Hoefler & Co., which names Nike, Starbucks, and Barack Obama among its clients, has figured out a way to expedite the process: algorithms. Company founder Jonathan Hoefler and Andy Clymer, senior designer at Hoefler, told Wired algorithms can start doing some of the work that previously fell to designers. This is true especially for ornamental fonts. Their vectors — graphic pathways that shift an image around stable points — must not only determine the curves of the letters, but also dimensions and lighting.

The first font to get this treatment is Obsidian, a decorative, three-dimensional font inspired by the ornamental look of old maps. To give the font a contemporary feel, Clymer and Hoefler began with a popular type called Surveyor, and built Obsidian using its preexisting structure. Then they designed an algorithm which would rapidly light the 3D typeface and create the shadows necessary to show dimension. Because Obsidian was created in a virtual environment capable of simulating light on any letter in the set, the designers were freed from the task of painstakingly drawing shadows on each character.

"A whole new way of thinking about letters as a generative process."

"[Obsidian] is sort of computationally driven, it really has that kind of texture and dimensionality," Hoefler says. "For us it’s a whole new way of thinking about letters as a generative process."

The algorithm does fall short on one important mark: multiple use. Hoefler says the next challenge is how to re-use the algorithm without creating the same font. Because Obsidian's dimensions are computer-generated, its gradients are made up of digitally pinpointed pixels, not hand-crafted shadows, leaving less room for unique variations.

And that's where humans still have an advantage. The glacial process of type design, in which designers must individually tweak and nudge vectors to their liking, prevents the creation of exact replications — something the algorithm can't yet do.

Oh my goodness, Infinifactory is difficult.

I’ve been delighted by the recent spate of 3D first-person puzzlers, like Mind: Path To Thalamus, The Talos Principle, Puzzle Dimension, and of course Portal and Portal 2. Infinifactory looks at them and says, “Pah! For babies!” An obvious evolution from the developer’s previous SpaceChem, this is a three dimensional block-arranging puzzler, where you’re tasked with creating factory lines that move blocks about in certain formations.

Oh, look, it’s tough to describe. Have a trailer:

And, as mentioned, good gravy it’s hard. It’s hard for two reasons. Firstly, because it’s a brutally tricky puzzle game, and secondly – at this stage in its alpha – because it’s horribly poorly introduced.

Which is a surprise, after its glorious opening. It opens with you sat in a car, driving down a long road in what looks like the American mid-west, when bright lights flicker about you and all fades away. It’s an alien kidnapping! You wake to find yourself in a series of chambers, forced to complete very basic challenges to progress through rooms. You’re stamped into a special suit, which equips you with the ability to place cubes into the environment. Quickly you’re shown that this can be used to create factory lines that transfer other cubes from one place to t’other.

You’re then seemingly approved for further work in a beautifully timed and very silly sequence featuring some sort of alien overlord, at which point it abandons most of the façade and just becomes a straight puzzle game, challenges selected from a menu screen. And that happy-go-lucky comedy tutorial will have in no way prepared you.

It’s extremely clumsy, leaving out key instructions that aren’t fun to stumble upon for yourself. However, once stumbled upon, the incredibly tricky fun does begin. But wow, it’s tough stuff.

Most other puzzlers would tell you that the blocks that make fizzy lights are there to fuse other blocks together. They’d likely create a puzzle where you were carefully guided to do a very basic version of this fusing. Not Infinifactory. And while less hand-holding is extremely welcome across most gaming, it’s interesting to see the effect of having too little. I’m yet to decide how in favour of it I am. I’m pretty certain some much clearer explanation of what blocks actually are is heavily necessary.

I think this is best reflected in how I respond to the survey at the end of each puzzle. “Was this puzzle too hard?” Yes. “Did you have fun solving this puzzle?” Yes. It’s an odd, seeming contradiction, but sadly there’s not room to give a more nuanced explanation there. Phew, thank goodness I have this website to say it on instead.

A lovely touch is the slight maintenance of the story as you go. Dead bodies can be found on levels, with recorded logs capturing their final moments. Moments that seem to be extremely distressed. I’m not entirely sure what it is that previous captives were so distraught about. Sure, we’ve been captured by aliens, but it’s not like we’re getting probed – we’re being given jetpacks and asked to solve clever puzzles! Jetpacks, for goodness sakes! Were they sobbing about how bloody difficult it is, then yes, I could understand.

I’ve barely got anywhere with the game, but despite the issues, I’ve had a rather good time not getting there. I’ve stared blankly at puzzles, or aimlessly floated around them (thanks, jetpack), muttering to myself. It’s very clear that the brains at Zachtronics are much bigger than my own, and kudos to them for creating a game that isn’t afraid to scare people off. And if you’re a SpaceChem fan, then it’s safe to say you’re going to be diving head-first into this.

17 pounds and 9 pence strikes me as a heck of a lot for an unfinished puzzle game in development, but then I don’t understand you young people and your new-fangled schemes. There’s no doubt that if you’re a brainbox, and enjoy a puzzler that’s more free-form, a bit sandboxy rather than aiming for a perfect solution, then there’s huge appeal here. There’s a nice touch that it’ll compare your solution with your chums’ on Steam, too, which might fire up some competitive edge.

I’m rubbish at it, of this there is no doubt.

T-Mobile made headlines when it announced rollover data as the latest of its Uncarrier initiatives, letting customers carry over the unused data they've already paid for into subsequent billing cycles. Not long after, T-Mobile's much larger rival AT&T followed with a slightly different take on the concept. But the trend won't be continuing on to Verizon Wireless, the largest mobile provider in the United States. CNET reports that CFO Fran Shammo emphatically shut down the idea during an interview Thursday, explaining that it simply doesn't make much financial sense from where Verizon stands now. "We're a leader, not a follower," Shammo said.

"We are just not going to compete with that."

"We did not go to places where we did not financially want to go to save a customer," Shammo said. Nor does Verizon seem overly worried about the prospect of customers switching to T-Mobile for Data Stash and other Uncarrier perks. If basement-level pricing is what you're after, the company has no problems watching you leave. "There's going to be certain customers who leave us for price, and we are just not going to compete with that because it doesn't make financial sense for us to do that."

Verizon's not really mincing words here; it's in a cushy position and making heaps of money, so executives are flat out ignoring John Legere's attempts to change the entire mobile industry. If T-Mobile's strong growth keeps up (and Verizon notices an exodus), the story might change. But for now, you'd better make the most of that data you're paying for. It's only good for a month — and staying that way. Hey, at least us grandfathered unlimited customers are still living the good life.

• OneNote integration is now generally available to all users.
• PDF downloads are now generally available to all users.
• Boosted feeds: Basic users can now have 10 boosted feeds (instead of 1), Plus users can have 30 (bumped from 10) and Professional users can boost up to 50 (from 30) feeds.

New plan - Starter

Thank you!