Peter Karow

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Peter Karow

Peter Karow (born November 11, 1940 in Stargard in Pomerania ) is a German entrepreneur, inventor and software developer . He holds several patents in the field of desktop publishing . He became known for his work with computer fonts . With a number of books and patents, Peter Karow has made a significant contribution to the worldwide electronic use of fonts and to the further development of operating software for computers. He is considered to be the inventor of digital font storage with outline formats.

Life

After graduating from high school in 1960 in Schöningen near Braunschweig , Karow studied physics in Hamburg . He has been married since 1969 and has two children. After receiving his doctorate in 1971, he became the third partner of URW Software & Type GmbH in Hamburg. His Icarus program was presented to members of the Association Typographique Internationale in Warsaw in 1975 . Then it was used worldwide for the digitization of fonts. From 1975 to 1995, URW digitized large quantities of digital fonts for companies such as IBM , Siemens , Microsoft , Apple , Adobe , Linotype , Monotype , Hell and Japanese companies.

Act

Digitization of the contours (outlines) of letters (1972) with Ikarus

electronic font variants 1973
Icarus outline description
Digitizer 1972

On a digitizer tablet by Aristo, the letters were digitized with a size of about 10 cm along their contour with the help of various support points (start, corner, tangent, curve) with an accuracy of 1/100 mm, and were therefore scalable and arbitrarily for the computer accessible for other arithmetic operations.

Calculation of the first variations (1973)

After the output was programmed for drawing machines, the first variations of fonts were calculated, such as italic, outlined and shaded letters.

Interpolations (1973)

Any number of levels could be calculated from a lean and a bold version of a font through inter- and extrapolation, such as extra light, semi-bold and extra bold variants. This invention saved font makers a great deal of labor and was widely used, particularly in Japan.

Interpolation of fonts
Italic adjustment after electronic italics

Embroidery of Texts (1975)

For the Gunold company in Stockstadt he developed a program with which, for the first time, texts could be automatically embroidered in satin stitch.

Calculation of bitmaps (rasterizing, 1975)

Rasterization of bitmap fonts
controlled, best possible screening
Shape distortions after automatic screening

For the representation of letters by electronic devices such as digital typesetting machines, needle or laser printers and especially computer screens, the fast calculation of bitmaps in any size (resolution) is crucial. In 1965, Dr. Rudolf Hell invented the Digiset, the first electronic typesetting machine. From 1970 the first small laser printers were operational at Xerox and from 1973 the first PC (Xerox Alto) with a graphical user interface was developed in which a bitmap memory was used to produce the video signal.

Hinting (1975)

Peter Karow soon noticed that the mere calculation of bitmaps with coarse resolutions led to letter shapes that appeared distorted by the random rasterization. To avoid these effects, he invented the additional indication of letter elements such as vertical and horizontal straight or curved lines or serifs and their classification as belonging to uppercase or lowercase letters. This enabled improved bitmaps to be produced and used as bitmap fonts in connection with needle and laser printers or electronic typesetting machines. In 1985, John Warnock and Chuck Geschke and Bill Paxton developed "Hinting on the Fly" for PostScript fonts at Adobe on the basis of this concept. This allowed fonts that were generally available to be used on any computers and printers as well as typesetting machines. In 1988 Peter Karow advised Apple on the development of hinting for TrueType fonts. In 1992, this method of font storage was adopted by Microsoft. In 1997, both font storage techniques were combined as OpenType .

left without, right with kerning
left without, right with gray screen

Kerning (1981)

From 1981 to 1991, together with Margret Albrecht from Hamburg, he worked on the automation of kerning, i.e. the calculation of kerning information to improve the typesetting of texts. Until then, these values ​​were determined empirically by type designers.

Grayscaling (1981)

At first, the graphical user interfaces on the screens were black and white and therefore the display of the fonts in small sizes was miserable, namely with jagged edges. Peter Karow dealt with the cost-effective improvement of the display by using gray levels for the edges, but initially failed to gain acceptance. It was not until 1995, on his advice, that Adobe was able to use the Acrobat program for the first time grayscale for displaying texts on screens. In the meantime, all letters are generally shown on the screens with gray levels to smooth the edges.

different shape per font size
Labeling with the Signus system

Signus system (1983)

In 1983, the Signus system was developed from the Ikarus program, with which letters could be cut from self-adhesive foils for lettering in outdoor advertising. This labeling technique is now known as “computer fonts”.

Optical Scaling (1991)

With this method, the automatic adjustment of the fonts to the letter size was achieved, just as earlier, at the time of the lead type, the fonts with decreasing point size were made somewhat thicker and wider. Today, this well-known process is generally no longer used.

Element Separation (1992)

Together with Jürgen Willrodt from Hamburg, he developed the automatic breakdown of Kanji characters into elements for the Fujitsu company . With this method it was possible to save a Kanji script with a space saving of 80% without any loss of quality after the composition.

Paragraph break

hz program

The hz program (1992): Together with the well-known typographers Hermann Zapf and Margret Albrecht, he developed the automation of paragraph pagination. In addition to automatic kerning and optical scaling, the optimization of the break according to Donald Knuth ( TeX typesetting system ) was used. In 1995 the underlying ideas and algorithms were given to Adobe Inc. and programmed there for the InDesign program.

Chapter Break (1995)

Analogous to the considerations when making a paragraph, he and Margret Albrecht worked on the automatic break of a chapter at Adobe. They achieved that the chapters of a book can begin on a right page ( recto ) and always end on a left page ( verso ), avoiding whores children and cobbler boys . The method was registered for a patent in 1996, but has not yet been used in a typesetting program.

Ad Cyclopedia (1999)

In the company AdVision digital GmbH in Hamburg he developed the AdZyklopädie , a database for past and current advertising measures in newspapers, magazines, television, internet, posters, cinema and e-mail. In 1999, the Presidium of the General Association of Communication Agencies (GWA) entered into a cooperation with the Hamburg-based company AdVision digital GmbH in order to enable members and their customers to monitor the competition via the Internet for the first time. Today the GWA-AdZyklopädie also allows you to evaluate advertising spending (budgets) according to company, brand and product. This makes it a competitor to the quasi monopoly Nielsen Media Research .

Award

  • 2003: Dr. Peter Karow Award for Font Technology & Digital Typography from the Dutch Type Library (DTL) for extraordinary and innovative achievements in the field of font technology and digital typography

Works

  • Computer-aided font development for photo typesetting, CRT and laser typesetting. Der Druckspiegel, No. 9, September 1979.
  • Ikarus: computerized template creation for photo, CRT and laser replacement. Typographic monthly pages TM2, 1980.
  • IKARUS in Hamburg, graphics in industry and technology , Springer Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg New York London Paris Tokyo, 1989, ISBN 3-540-50769-8 .
  • Digital fonts. Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg New York London Paris Tokyo, 1992, ISBN 3-540-54917-X .
  • Digital typefaces. Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg New York London Paris Tokyo, 1994, ISBN 3-540-56509-4 .
  • Font technology. Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg New York London Paris Tokyo, 1992, ISBN 3-540-54918-8 .
  • Font Technology. Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg New York London Paris Tokyo, 1994, ISBN 3-540-57223-6 .
  • Writing statistics. URW Verlag, Hamburg, 1992, ISBN 3-926515-07-4 .
  • Typeface Statistics. URW Verlag, Hamburg, 1993, ISBN 3-926515-08-2 .
  • PrintWorks. URW Verlag, Hamburg, 1994, ISBN 3-926515-13-9 .
  • EuroWorks. URW Verlag, Hamburg, 1994, ISBN 3-926515-11-2 .
  • Шрифтовые технологии. Описание и инструментарий. Издательство "Мир", Москва, 2001, ISBN 5-03-003360-2 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Peter Karow as a speaker at the University of Macedonia Press
  2. ↑ Patent US4630309 : Method and apparatus for automatic digitizing of contour lines. Registered on June 29, 1984 , published on December 16, 1986 , applicant: Urw Unternehmensberatung Karow Rubow Weber GmbH, inventor: Peter Karow. ‌
  3. ↑ [1] - Font division for different character sizes, patent of Adobe Systems Inc.
  4. ↑ [2] - Pointsize-variable character spacing, patent of Adobe Systems Inc.
  5. ↑ [3] - Optical justification of text, patent of Adobe Systems Inc.
  6. ↑ [4] - Method for preparing fonts, patent of URW Software & Type GmbH
  7. ↑ [5] - Method and device for testing the type quality of printed products, patent of Dr.-Ing. Rudolf Hell GmbH
  8. ↑ [6] - Process and device for high-resolution display of line graphics, patent of Dr.-Ing. Rudolf Hell GmbH
  9. ↑ [7] - Process and device for high-quality typographic representation of fonts, patent of Dr.-Ing. Rudolf Hell GmbH
  10. ↑ [8] - Method for outputting text on high-resolution output devices, patent of Adobe Systems Inc.
  11. ↑ [9] - Method and device to check the sentence quality of printed matter, in particular for newspapers, patent of Dr.-Ing. Rudolf Hell GmbH
  12. ↑ [10] - Method for displaying text on display devices, patent of Adobe Systems Inc.
  13. ↑ [11] - Method for displaying text and graphics on color display devices, patent of Adobe Systems Inc.
  14. ↑ [12] - Generation of typefaces on high resolution output devices, patent of Adobe Systems Inc.
  15. ↑ [13] - Method and apparatus for display of text on screens, patent of Adobe Systems Inc.
  16. ^ From writing to labeling (Signus) , Gerhard Rubow in: Graphics in Industry and Technology , Springer Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg New York London Paris Tokyo 1989, ISBN 3-540-50769-8
  17. ↑ [14] - Digital storage of Kanji scripts, patent of URW Software & Type GmbH
  18. ^ Hermann Zapf: About micro-typography and the hz-programm in RIDT'94, John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 1994, ISBN 0-471-94823-3
  19. ^ [15] - Donald Knuth honored with the Peter Karow Award
  20. ↑ [16] - Method for outputting multitype fonts on high-resolution output devices, patent of Adobe Systems Inc.
  21. ↑ [17] - Method for creating a balanced layout, patent of URW Software & Type GmbH
  22. ↑ [18] - Generation of multitype fonts on high resolution output devices, patent of URW Software & Type GmbH
  23. ↑ Dr. Peter Karow Award - Microsoft typography, microsoft.com, October 1, 2003
personal data
SURNAME Karow, Peter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German entrepreneur, inventor and software developer
DATE OF BIRTH November 11, 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH Stargard in Pomerania