Monotype fonts are tough to get right. The Latin alphabet evolved "off the grid", as did all of its prominent variations -- for example black letter (sometimes called "gothic"), humanist (the fore-runner of our "roman type"), and chancery cursive (the fore-runner of our "italic"). The only precursor for monotype is the large, decorated capitals at the beginning of chapters and sections -- "illuminated letters" -- that were approximately square.
Some consequence: the poor spacing of the letters 'i' and 'l', and the squashed, dark appearance of the 'm' and 'w' in monotype fonts. There is something of a hopeless in the task, though, since any good monotype font will have hundreds of characters in it: punctuation, numbers, European letters, mathematical marks...
Making them all look right together, with the additional constraint of identical size, is a Herculean task.
Some consequence: the poor spacing of the letters 'i' and 'l', and the squashed, dark appearance of the 'm' and 'w' in monotype fonts. There is something of a hopeless in the task, though, since any good monotype font will have hundreds of characters in it: punctuation, numbers, European letters, mathematical marks...
Making them all look right together, with the additional constraint of identical size, is a Herculean task.