Multiple master fonts (or MM fonts) are an extension to Adobe Systems' Type 1 PostScript fonts, now superseded by the advent of OpenType and, in particular, the introduction of OpenType Font Variations in OpenType 1.8, also called variable fonts.[1][2]
Multiple master fonts contain two or more "masters"—that is, original font styles—and enable a user to interpolate between these masters along a continuous range of "axes." With proper application support, these axes could be adjusted on demand.
The intention was that using multiple master fonts, a designer can generate a style of the exact width, thickness and optical size wanted, without losing the integrity or readability of the character glyphs. The effect is similar to morphing, as a designer can choose an intermediate between two styles, for example generating a semibold font by compromising between a bold and regular style, or perhaps extend a trend to create an ultra-light or ultra-bold. This idea was not new, having been used by companies such as URW++, but Adobe hoped to develop the technology to a greater extent.
Adobe's goal in multiple master font technology was to allow end-users of fonts to create the exact font they needed for a situation, by adjusting parameters such as boldness or width.[3][4][5] However, multiple master fonts proved unpopular in consumer-facing use due to the difficulty of writing (or rewriting) consumer desktop publishing applications to support them, and because font designers have generally preferred to release fonts in specific weights and styles, as font files that have been individually fine-tuned. However, the multiple master concept remains heavily used at font design studios, allowing designers to generate a range of weights and styles quickly and then optimise them individually.[6][7] 'Multiple master' may therefore often be seen as a generic term describing interpolated font design generally, not necessarily using Adobe technology.[8][9]
In 2016, Adobe, Google, Apple and Microsoft announced a new update to the OpenType specification, allowing variable fonts. Similar to the multiple master concept, this will allow custom styles to be generated from a single font file programmatically.[10][2]
Where available, most MM fonts support one or two (and occasionally three) of the following variables:
For example, the Myriad multiple master font had two axes: "weight" and "width." This font therefore included four separate "master designs" of each character: light compressed, light extended, bold compressed, and bold extended. Any weight or width font in between these endpoints could be produced by interpolating between the character outlines of these master designs.[11][12] The addition of italics requires another four master designs.
Another example is Adobe Jenson, which supports "weight" and "optical size" axes. This font uses three masters to represent the optical-size axis, designed for 6, 12, and 72 point type, respectively. This allows the common size of 12 points to be optimized, but requires 6 master designs for roman, and another 6 for italic.
Current application support for these fonts is sparse, if not entirely absent. However, font design tools such as FontLab and FontForge can edit MM fonts, and can export into other font formats as needed. Adobe Type Manager (ATM) is required for MM support on Windows and the "Classic" Mac OS (9 and below).
Describing why the technology failed, a retrospective by Tamye Riggs, written for Adobe, noted: "Users were forced to generate instances for each variation of a font they wanted to try, resulting in a hard drive littered with font files bearing such arcane names as MinioMM_578 BD 465 CN 11 OP." Prominent Adobe font designer Carol Twombly cited the frustrations of the failed project as one of several reasons behind her decision to leave font design around 1999, and Adobe's Christopher Slye would later relate that he had been concerned that Adobe's principal type designer Robert Slimbach had damaged his health struggling to apply multiple master technology to Adobe Jenson in the late 1990s.[4][13]
Free-software support for multiple master fonts is offered by the program mminstance, which generates standard PostScript fonts from multiple master fonts. These can then be used in any application that is compatible with standard PostScript type 1 fonts.
The FreeType font rendering engine also provides rendering support for multiple master (and GX) 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:
Since in modern multiple master design the norm is to release to the user a curated collection of weights, a key question is which sizes to interpolate to. In the Thesis typeface, developed by Lucas de Groot, de Groot's choice of weights to release was developed using an "interpolation theory". The optical interpolation b, in the three stems a (thinnest), b (interpolation) and c (thickest), is set to the geometric mean of a and c, i.e. b² = ac (as opposed to the linear arithmetic mean).[14][15]
All known commercial MM fonts were released by Adobe, unless otherwise specified. While these faces are discontinued, all have since been converted to OpenType standard or "Pro" formats.
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