Ikarus is a type design and production software developed by URW and Brendel Informatik foundries, for converting existing typefaces and logos into digital format for use on computer driven printing, plotting and sign cutting devices.
Originally invented by URW employee Dr Peter Karow, Ikarus (German spelling of the mythical figure Icarus) got its name from the frequency with which it crashed in the early days of its development.
[1] By the 1980s a huge library of typefaces and logos existed as photographic film and needed to be input into computers for the latest generation of printing and sign-making devices.
Ikarus enables a human operator to input the features of a complex shape with curves, corners and straight lines (e.g. a letter of the alphabet) to a computer which stores it as a mathematical representation, for all intents and purposes independent of the size of the original artwork and of the final output.
After Adobe Systems started licensing BuildFont, its technology for converting existing digital typeface data into PostScript font format, Ikarus gradually lost its leading position.
As the computer screen displays a rasterized image at relatively low resolution, high quality print outs (traditionally bromides) or cuts in film (Ulano) are used to proof the digitized shapes.