Automatic Type Design 3
digital typography yesterday and tomorrow

Atelier national de recherche typographique 
ENSAD Nancy 

17–21 February 2025

Automatic Type Design is an occasional symposium focused on digital font technologies, from design to production. In its third edition, it aims to examine digital type design and typography, their concepts, and challenges from both historical and forward-looking perspectives. We seek to critically review how past technological advancements have shaped our current understanding of fonts and letterforms. Additionally, we aspire to glimpse into the future to anticipate upcoming developments. In particular, we hope to critically assess the applications of machine learning, exploring its potential and limitations.

The conference welcomes designers, technologists, historians, and researchers. It will feature invited keynote speakers as well as accepted presenters from an open call for papers (see below).

We recognize that type design and computer science are traditionally male-dominated fields and encourage authors of all gender identities to submit their proposals. We aim to have a diverse pool of speakers.

The conference is planned to last 2 to 3 days, preceded by a series of workshops. The complete programme will be announced in December 2024. 

It will consist of:

• invited keynote speakers

• accepted presentations/papers

• software demonstrations

• exhibitions

• workshops

Call for papers
All proposals that engage critically with digital fonts or their production are most welcome. The following topics are examples only:

• digital font formats and their use in typography;

• legacy font editors (FRED, Ikarus, Metafont, LetterSpirit, Apple Font Editor) including testimonies of their designers or users;

• challenges and limitations of font formats and encoding standards;

• quality assessment, readability assessment;

• applications of machine learning to glyph design, spacing, and assessment of type design and typography.
  

Submission details
Extended abstract between 500 and 1000 words with bibliography included submitted via EasyChair will be reviewed anonymously. 
Please ensure the abstract is provided in a PDF and anonymous.

Possible formats:

• presentations/papers (we plan for 20 min. slots with chaired panel discussions for a block of 3–5 presentations)

• workshops

• software demonstrations (no need to anonymize)

• collective student presentation (details to be discussed)

Submission deadline: 30 November 2024
Notification of acceptance: 15 December 2024
Conference: 17–21 February 2025
Proceedings submission: 14 April 2025
Submit your paper via EasyChair

Program committee
Thomas Huot-Marchand, ANRT (FR)
Alice Savoie, ANRT (FR) – ECAL/HES-SO (CH)
Anushah Hossain, UC Berkeley (USA)
Davide Fornari, ECAL/HES-SO (CH)
David Březina, Rosetta Research (CZ)

Organizer
Atelier national de recherche typographique 
École nationale supérieure d’art et de design de Nancy
in partnership with ECAL/École cantonale d’art de Lausanne (HES-SO)

Programme
Keynote speakers

• NORM (CH)

• Patrick Baudelaire (FR)

• Scott Kim (Stanford University, USA) 

• Anushah Hossain (UC Berkeley, USA) tbc

• Ferdinand Ulrich (FH Salzburg, AT)

• David Březina (Rosetta Research, CZ)

• Alice Savoie (FR) and Beyond Bézier team (ECAL/HES-SO, CH)

Location
The conference will be held physically at the ENSAD Nancy, ARTEM Campus, Nancy (France).

Registration fee
Symposium:

• Professionals: 70 euros

• Students: 5 euros

Registration is open

Workshops: details to follow.

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