Legacy of Multiple Master Fonts
The multiple master font format has mostly been superseded by OpenType, which provides more support for different languages and glyphs, but does not offer the unique continuous controls for character shape. Typically the OpenType versions of old multiple master fonts include a selection of the most commonly used combinations of axis positions.
Multiple master fonts still serve two purposes:
- As the fallback font format of Adobe Acrobat, multiple master fonts are used as a substitute in place of original fonts in the case of missing fonts. Two such substitution fonts are buried amongst the data resources for Acrobat: Adobe Serif MM and Adobe Sans MM. CourierStd is another fallback font family in Acrobat.
- As a design tool for creating families of fonts; a font designer can create a multiple master font from a base font design and then offer customers a wide number of font variations by building them from the multiple axes of an MM font. E.g. by creating a light version and a heavy version of their font design someone could create a multiple master font with a weight axis and then offer clients any custom weight they wanted. Adobe and others continue to use multiple master technology in font design.
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—Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)
“There is a continual exchange of ideas between all minds of a generation. Journalists, popular novelists, illustrators, and cartoonists adapt the truths discovered by the powerful intellects for the multitude. It is like a spiritual flood, like a gush that pours into multiple cascades until it forms the great moving sheet of water that stands for the mentality of a period.”
—Auguste Rodin (1849–1917)
“There are many skillful apprentices, but few master workmen.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)