Font Hinting and the Future of Responsive Typography

The idea of modifying a typeface’s letterforms for different situations is nothing new. As far back as Gutenberg, each size of a letterpress typeface has traditionally featured “optical size” variations that altered the spacing, proportions, weight, and other details for optimal results. This concept has been applied to some digital typefaces that are offered as “Text” and “Display” versions, for example. Type and web designers usually think of “hinting” as instructions built into digital fonts.