Are there no natural metrics for typefaces? I doubt that. If there are some, then order typefaces along those and project that higher dimensional space down t

Are there no natural metrics for typefaces? I doubt that. If there are some, then order typefaces along those and project that higher dimensional space down to 2 or 3. Jigger a bit with the projection to make the output as legible as possible while preserving all or most all of the information it can covey. Done. That is what the chemists did. It took them quite a bit of work (years, iirc), and that is why we laud them. They didn't lazily appropriate some previous table's shape and force the elements to fit it. Well, hell, maybe some chemists did do that sort of cargo cult "info"graphicing. But we rightly forgot about them because what they made was silly in comparison to the actual periodic table, which conveys real information about our world.