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"Get outta here, Comic Sans \u2014 and take Papyrus with you.\nA new open-source, online typeface editor wants to streamline how we design fonts, a process that is otherwise typically tedious and repetitive.\nSee also: A New Version of Comic Sans Actually Looks Pretty Cool\nPrototypo will let anyone design an entire font system all at once. For professionals this means a less time-consuming process than working letter-by-letter and for beginners it means a way to create something original without having a lot of expertise or running into legal issues by modifying existing fonts.\n\"When I make a website I can go to a website like Google Fonts ... but they're very basic and I still have to browse,\" Prototypo co-founder Louis-R\u00E9mi Bab\u00E9 told Mashable. \"Instead I could just have a larger list of parameters right on the web page I'm designing.\"\nThe application currently exists in beta, but Bab\u00E9 and co-founder Yannick Mathey are at work on Prototypo 1.0. In the beta version, users start with one of four basic fonts they can then modify using parameters such as thickness, aperture (negative space) and roundness. Serifs can be fine-tuned separately. The final version will include more than 25 adjustable options.\nTo see what a font will look like in use, designers can type a word or phrase into a box in the upper left corner of the application. Once done, a design can be exported as a vector-based graphics file (.svg). If users want to refine their fonts further they can use more traditional software, such as FontForge.\n\nImage:  Prototypo\n\n\nPrototypo 1.0 will feature additional options, such as the ability to adjust individual letters and serifs, export different types of files and edit specific points on a letter for more detailed refinement. Future goals include importing fonts of your own to modify \u2014 which would let users create designs that are not Latin-based \u2014 using parametric code to adjust fonts and previewing designs directly on a website.\nThe application is web based and will work in the most common modern browsers, but it will still be accessible if users are not connected to the Internet, Bab\u00E9 said. Prototype 1.0 will also be accessible on tablets. Bab\u00E9\u00A0hopes that eventually people will be able to install a program directly onto their computers.\nPrototypo began as a final project when Mathey was in his final year at ESAD Strasbourg, a French art school. He originally designed a program called Pimp My Serif, which then morphed into a system to modify entire letters. Development slowed after Mathey graduated until Bab\u00E9, a web developer by trade, offered to help bring it back to life.\nThe project's Kickstarter campaign has exceeded expectations so far. As of press time it had raised more than \u00A325,000 ($42,000) out of a \u00A312,000 ($20,000) goal with seven days to go.\nPrototypo 1.0 is expected to be up and running in September. A subscription to the application will cost approximately $25 per year.\nHave something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2014/05/04/prototypo-fonts/>