1. A method for use in a computer system of generating a composite character configured for presentation by an output device, the composite character including a first component glyph and a second component glyph, each component glyph being defined by an outline, the method comprising: identifying, by the computer system, a first control point associated with the outline of the first component glyph and a second control point associated with the outline of the second component glyph, wherein identifying a first control point and a second control point comprises: determining one or more candidate control points for each of the first component glyph and the second component glyph; selecting the first control point from the one or more candidate control points determined for the first component glyph; and selecting the second control point from the one or more candidate control points determined for the second component glyph; receiving, by the computer system, a typographically relevant offset constraint associated with the composite character and relative to the first and second control points of the first and second component glyphs, the offset constraint including a vertical offset and a horizontal offset between the first component glyph and the second component glyph; scaling the outlines of the first and second component glyphs and the vertical and horizontal offsets of the offset constraint based at least in part on an output device resolution; assembling the scaled outline of the first component glyph and the scaled outline of the second component glyph to generate the composite character; and altering the assembled composite character to cause relative positions of the first control point and the second control point in the assembled composite character to satisfy the scaled offset constraint.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein the horizontal offset represents a horizontal separation between the first control point and the second control point.