Font Hinting and the Future of Responsive Typography

Type and web designers usually think of “hinting” as instructions built into digital fonts to improve their rendering on a grid of pixels. Hinting pushes the points of a font’s Bézier curves around according to contextual conditions, such as the font’s rendering size. Though it’s now associated with type on screens, hinting was first used in the 1980s to improve rendering on low-resolution printers.

Nick Sherman delivers a fascinating breakdown on font hunting and how responsive font design and rendering will continue to evolve.