Fudge™

Why does it exist?

Most tools for producing digital fonts are very clinical and professionally orthodox. They leave little room for creativity and lack almost any form of enjoyment.

As a keen interactive designer, I thought about making my own software, the way I want to play with type design and the way I feel we should be able to interact with the design.

What can you do with it?

Fudge can add or subtract points along the outlines of fonts in any way you want (as long as it's programmable) and give these points properties obtained from a physical input, for example you can sing into a microphone and watch the type dance about, or tap presure pads to dent the type designs. These changes can be saved into an original TrueType or OpenType font.

At the moment I use fudge as a personal tool for exhibiting typographic ideas allowing users to experiment and play with type.

How does it work?

A few things came together at the right time for me to realise a method of playing with typefaces in Macromedia Flash. Using two 3rd Party applications, Open Source TTX and Multidmedia ZINC™ V2, I was able to build a stable engine for opening and saving fonts. Once opened in flash, I could then apply my skills with actionscript to create effects for typefaces. After 6 months of building, testing (then rebuilding), FUDGE was born, an expandable application, adaptable for many ideas.

FUDGE Engine Features:

* Opens any TrueType or OpenType font
* Full character map view
* Expandable ‘Plug-in’ Filter Architecture
* One-click to apply filter to entire typeface
* Exports TrueType or OpenType font with embedded
information: Font Name, Designer name, Designer URL
* ‘Clear Individual’, or ‘Clear All’ filters
* Custom DLL support, for almost any input
* Joystick, Microphone, Video, Mouse Wheel support.
* Custom graphics available

Additional Credits:

Macromedia - www.macromedia.com
Just van Rossum - TTX
ZINC™ V2 - www.multidmedia.com,
Multidmedia Forum - www.mdmforum.com
Timothee Groleau - Bezier Prototypes
Typophile - www.typophile.com/forums
Iman Moradi, Si Richardson, Dom Goodrum - Beta Testers

Who am I?

Nic Mulvaney, an interactive designer at AllofUs™ in London and a First class BA(Hons) graduate in Multimedia Design.

If you wish to use fudge in an exhibit or have any ideas for visual applications of fudge, please contact me.

You can view my personal portfolio at www.nicmulvaney.com
Please feel free to contact me at nic@gizma.com