Designing Chinese typeface using components

We discuss a generic design scheme for constructing Chinese characters. We first highlight the demand for developing an automatic Chinese font design system. Then, we show that the structure of a Chinese character can be represented by a structured character description. The scheme for designing a character is presented in details. Our discussion includes stroke definition, building up components, and balancing the appearance of a character. A number of factors are considered in designing and harmonizing a character which includes component spacing, complexity, blackness, visual centre, centre of gravity, and attractive force. A prototype font design system is being built according to this component-based approach. Samples are given to show how a Chinese character can be constructed using the system. Finally, future research direction is recommended for further development.