Computers and Typesetting

Computers and Typesetting is a 5-volume set of books by <a href="/facts/Donald_Knuth/GozNzDM6">Donald Knuth</a> published in 1986 describing the <a href="/facts/TeX/HDrl3Yvd">TeX</a> and <a href="/facts/METAFONT/j7vCXw8s">Metafont</a> systems for <a href="/facts/Digital_typography/gUPtzSnH">digital typography</a>. Knuth's computers and typesetting project was the result of his frustration with the lack of decent software for the typesetting of mathematical and technical documents. The results of this project include TeX for typesetting, Metafont for <a href="/facts/Typeface/It41hIjl">font</a> construction and the <a href="/facts/Computer_Modern/nQ3Mkxho">Computer Modern</a> typefaces that are the default fonts used by TeX. In the series of five books Knuth not only describes the TeX and Metafont languages (volumes A and C), he also describes and documents the source code (in the <a href="/facts/WEB/hUS0X35L">WEB</a> programming language) of the TeX and Metafont interpreters (volumes B and D), and the source code for the <a href="/facts/Computer_Modern/nQ3Mkxho">Computer Modern</a> fonts used by TeX (volume E). The book set stands as a tour de force demonstration of <a href="/facts/Literate_programming/TvPFfD8L">literate programming</a>.
The books themselves were typeset in the <a href="/facts/Computer_Modern/nQ3Mkxho">Computer Modern</a> Roman typeface using TeX; thus, in Knuth's words, they "belong to the class of sets of books that describe precisely their own appearance".

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Computers and Typesetting