Sorry, but wrong again. There's simply been more than one
technological approach used for displaying fonts on computers, and
contrasting approaches is illuminating.
> >> ... which is why one is left scratching
> >> his/her head with your fixation on bitmap fonts.
>
> > Oops! You failed to apply what you seemingly had just learned. So so
> > sorry!
>
> There is no connection between bitmap fonts, interpolation on LCDs and
> the topic of the discussion.
On the contrary: bitmap fonts are more susceptible to poor legibility
than others when there's a mismatch. Their redeeming quality had been
that they generally required less computational overhead.
> Period. Let alone calculus and my knowledge or lack thereof.
Your lack of knowledge thereof is why you're trying to argue an
unwinnable point. These are discrete systems trying to emulate an
analog output.
> >> Most of the notion of blurry fonts emanates from the fact that LCDs rely
> >> on interpolation when viewed at resolutions that are further from the
> >> native reolution, hence the fact that things are best viewed as close to
> >> the native resolution as possible.
>
> > Except that outline fonts don't have a "native resolution" in that
> > sense. Only bitmap fonts do.
>
> In fact, they do:
>
> "The native resolution of a LCD, LCoS or other flat panel display refers
> to its single fixed resolution. As an LCD display consists of a fixed
> raster, it cannot change resolution to match the signal being displayed
> as a CRT monitor can, meaning that optimal display quality can be
> reached only when the signal input matches the native resolution."
>
> "In theory, some resolutions could work well, if they are exact
> multiples of smaller image sizes. For example, a 1600×1200 LCD could
> display an 800×600 image well, as each of the pixels in the image could
> be represented by a block of four on the larger display, without
> interpolation. Since 800×600 is an integer factor of 1600×1200, scaling
> should not adversely affect the image. But in practice, most monitors
> apply a smoothing algorithm to all smaller resolutions, so the quality
> still suffers for these "half" modes."
>
>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_resolution
Sorry, but that's the hardware - - not the font. When you get into
the questions of how to display outlines, even if a "2x2" block is
appropriate on a high resolution grid, it does not necessarily mean
that a "1x1" applies on a low resolution grid: this is why I've
already said that Typography is a topic area where the digital
technology has historically chronically underestimated its form.
> >> Modern LCDs have tremendous pixel counts and fonts are visible in a
> >> wider range of resolutions because the human eye can't detect the
> >> difference as much as it can on an ancient LCD.
>
> > Yes, but pixel counts - as quantified by the term of "dpi" - is really
> > no more than the 'Delta X' approximation that leads to Calculus. And
> > when Delta X becomes sufficiently small, then it can be considered to
> > have satisfactorily become 'dX'.
>
> >>>> Ever hear of picture perfect?
>
> >>> Ever hear of Calculus or Differential Equations?
>
> >> Ya think?
>
> >>> Better yet, ever
> >>> have *and pass* multiple classes thereof? If you had, you would
> >>> understand why the technology was invented in the first place to
> >>> supersede bitmaps.
>
> >> Last course I remember was Calculus Trig, solid objects from revolution
> >> and other sundry goodies.
>
> > Too bad you didn't remember enough to be demonstrably able to apply
> > it.
>
> Are you talking about mathematical operations involved in vector fonts
> and smoothing of fonts or the scalability of primitive fonts and where
> the fck does calculus have anything to do with any of this?
As display pitches improve, it incrementally becomes closer to
functionally being an infinitesimal - - and you've already alluded to
this.
Calculus is related to this because it s foundation is in the concept
of increasingly smaller *discrete* measures of a continuous function
as a technique for approximation:
'Calculus has historically been called "the calculus of
infinitesimals",
or "infinitesimal calculus". The word "calculus" comes from Latin
(calculus) and means a small stone used for counting.'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calculus
But of course, since you don't understand even these basics, you can't
see how obviously it applies.
> >> My kids are and were grateful that I could
> >> still remember enough to help them out. I also remember much of my
> >> advanced Chem and and as far as physics, ask me anything.
>
> > Did you really forget the basics of Calculus, or did you never
> > actually learn them?
>
> > This is a basic foundational tenant of Calculus - - learned the first
> > week - - and it is all that is needed to understand that in the
> > context of outline fonts, more pixels is always better when it comes
> > to reducing font 'fuzziness': the concept of smaller pixels is the
> > "delta X" which can become the dX of Calculus, manifesting itself as
> > an ever-improving estimate of its discrete approximation (ie, digital
> > pixels) of the original ... IE, the analog curve of an outline
> > font.
>
> Before this is even given any consideration, when you realize that LCDs,
> contrary to CRTs have a specific native resolution...
Factually incorrect, because conventional color CRTs have discrete
screens inside them which also results in them being functionally
discrete devices. If you want truely continuously variable, you at
least have to go monochrome.
> ... by the time
> interpolation kicks in, your silly notion of the causal relationship
> between calculus and font fuziness falls by the wayside quite quickly.
Hardly. If you really want to talk about true analog displays which
worked off of analog vectors being rastorized, you have to go back 30+
years to the big old monochrome Tektronix 4014 terminals...and given
how much they cost, they were *never* part of personal computing.
> > And of course, the above doesn't apply is if/where a system is still
> > using bitmapped fonts. Bitmap's not completely dead yet: I don't
> > know if/where bitmap fonts are still being used today in OS X, but I
> > do know that bitmap fonts are still being used in some parts of
> > Windows OS..
>
> Bitmap fonts are used in dumb terminals and were popular when
> computers were the size of outhouses so this is irrelevant.
Sorry, but the only way that you'll be convinced is to see it
yourself. So the next time you have a BSD on your Windows PC (which
shouldn't be too long of a wait for you), do be sure to note what the
font used is.
> It's all about pixel density and the capacity of the human eye to
> discern the solid color of the body of the font vis a vis the outline.
Yes, the human eye does play a part, in that it contributes to "how
dense is good enough" for purposes of **functionally being an
infinitesimal** ... but that is an illusion because it does not
magically transform the hardware into actually being analog
(continuous).
-hh