Welcome to Superpolation

Superpolation is a very flexible tool for interpolating fonts and glyphs with extreme flexibility in design space topology. Superpolator is a python package. Superpolator is based on RoboFab. Call LettError to find out more.

Superpolation

Superpolation is the process of interpolating with multiple values in multiple dimensions. It allows many masters to be included in one calculation, eliminating intermediate steps, rounding errors and greatly reducing complexity. The process is fast enough to include in interactive environments.

Masters can be inserted in any part of design space, on a glyph by glyph basis. That means one glyph can have more masters than the next, if this should be necessary. Superpolator builds the design space and calculates instances at any requested location. Extrapolation is possible in all directions. There's no mathematical limit to the number of dimensions or masters, though at some point there will be a performace tax. There's no direct relation between the number of masters in a design space and it's dimensions.

Straightforward interpolation models (such as Multiple Master in font technology) are limiting in what the designer (and therefor the design) can do. Superpolation challenges these limitations and removes quite a few of them. The nature of superpolation allows for a gradual construction of the design spaces for each glyph. This can lead to interesting new projects.

Code

The Superpolator package consists of a python library, demo scripts and utilities for use within FontLab (with .vfb files) and pure Python (with .ufo files). The API is documented.

First Release

Superpolator was presented at the Tech Forum at the 2004 ATypI conference in Prague.