Subject: comp.fonts FAQ: General Info (3/6)
From: [email-masked] (Norman Walsh)
Date: 14 Aug 1996 10:34:20 -0400
Newsgroups: comp.fonts,comp.answers,news.answers

Archive-name: fonts-faq/part3
Version: 2.1.5

Subject: 1.18. Bibliography
  
  Editors note: the following books have been suggested by readers of
  comp.fonts.  They are listed in no particular order.  I have lost the
  citations for some of the submissions.  If you wrote a review that
  appears below and you aren't credited, please let norm know.
  
  I have decided that this is the best section for pointers to other font
  resources (specs and other documents, for example).  These appear after
  the traditional bibliographic entries.  As usual I will happily accept
  entries for this section.  As of 9/92, the only files listed are the
  TrueType font information files available from Microsoft.
  
  Bill Ricker contributed the following general notes:
  
  The Watson-Guptill, Godine, and Dover publishers all have many
  typography titles. Godine and Dover tend to be excellent; W-G tends
  toward 'how-to' books which are good for basics and juried Annuals of
  job work.
  
  Hermann Zapf and his Design Philosophy, Society of Typographic Arts,
  Chicago, 1987.
  
  On Stone -- The Art and Use of Typography on the Personal Computer,
  Sumner Stone, Bedford Arts, 1991.
  
  Of the Just Shaping of Letters, Albrecht Durer, isbn 0-486-21306-4.
  
  First published in 1525 as part of his theoretical treatise on applied
  geometry, "The Art of Measurment".
  
  Champ Flevry, Geofroy Troy.
  
  First published in 1529 Troy attempts, in this book, to design an ideal
  Roman alphabet upon geometrical and aesthetic principles.
  
  The Alphabet & Elements of Lettering, Frederic W. Goudy, isbn
  0-486-20792-7. Revised 1942 edition.
  
  This very interesting book looks at the history of letter shapes as
  well font design.
  
  The Mac is Not a Typewriter, Robin Williams, Peachpit Press.
  
  A good, clear explanation of what typography is, and how to get it from
  your computer. Mac-specific, but full of excellent general advice. I
  think there's also a PC version. Available at most computer bookstores
  
  Rhyme and Reason: A Typographic Novel, Erik Spiekermann, H. Berthold AG,
      ISBN 3-9800722-5-8.
  
  Printing Types (2 vols), Daniel Berkely Updike, Dover Press.
  
  Affordable edition of the most readable history of type, lots of
  illustrations.
  
  Notes: Both the Dover and Harvard U. P. editions were 2 volumes.  The
  Dover editions were paperback and the Harvard hardback.  It appears
  that the Dover edition is out of print.  Collectible HUP editions are
  not cheap although later HUP editions may be had.  Most libraries have
  later HUP and Dover editions.  If someone knows of a source, please
  pass it along.
  
  The Art of Hand Lettering, Helm Wotzkow, Dover Press, reprint from 1952.
  
  Looking Good In Print, Roger C. Parker, Ventana Press,       ISBN:
  0-940087-32-4.
  
  Well, as a beginner's book, [it] isn't bad. I can't say that I agree
  with the author's tastes all the time, but he at least gives some good
  examples. Also there are some nice _Publish_-style makeovers.  Don
  Hosek <[email-masked]>
  
  Book Design: A Practical Introduction, Douglas Martin, Van Nostrand
  Reinhold, New York: 1989. 206pp.
  
  Along with Jan White's book (see below), this provides a fairly
  complete guide to book design.  Martin's book is somewhat more
  conservative in outlook and also reflects his UK background.  Don Hosek
  <[email-masked]>
  
  Digital Typography: An Introduction to Type and Composition for Computer
  System Design, Richard Rubinstein, Addison-Wesley, Reading,
  Massachusetts: 1988. 340pp.
  
  An interesting, technological approach to typography which is worth
  reading although not necessarily always worth believing. A not
  insubstantial portion of the text is dedicated to representing type on
  a CRT display and Rubinstein devotes some time to expressing
  characteristics of typography numerically.  Don Hosek
  <[email-masked]>
  
  Graphic Design for the Electronic Age, Jan V. White, Watson-Guptill
  Publications, New York: 1988. 212pp.
  
  A good handbook for document design. In a well-organized approach,
  White covers the principles for laying out most of the typographics
  features of a technical document. White is a bit overeager to embrace
  sans-serif types and in places his layout ideas seem a bit garish, but
  it's still a quite worthwhile book.  Don Hosek
  <[email-masked]>
  
  Xerox Publishing Standards: A Manual of Style and Design, Watson-Guptill
  Publications, New York: 1988. 400pp.
  
  Overall, a disappointing book. It is divided into four sections of
  widely varying intent: "Publishing Process," "Document Organization,"
  "Writing and Style" and "Visual Design." None of them is really
  adequate for the task and all are highly centered on the Xerox method
  for publishing. As a guide to Xerox' process, it succeeds, but as a
  manual for general use, it falls far short. In print.  Don Hosek
  <[email-masked]>
  
  Methods of Book Design (3rd edition), Hugh Williamson, Yale University
  Press, New Haven: 1983. 408pp.
  
  It is a bit out-of-date as regards technology, but on issues relating
  purely to design it is comprehensive and definitive.  Well, I suppose
  it could be argued that printing technology influences design - e.g.
  some types look fine in metal but lousy in digital imagesetting - and
  therefore a book that is out-of-date in technology can't really be
  "definitive" in matters of design either. In any event, _Methods_ is
  more than adequate for a beginner's needs.  My paper-bound copy (ISBN
  0-300-03035-5) was \$13.95; cheap at twice the price!  Cameron Smith
  <[email-masked]>
  
  The Thames & Hudson Manual of typography, Rauri McLean, Thames & Hudson
  
  An excellent book if you start getting more interested in type.  Look
  for Rauri McLean's other books after this one...  Liam R.E. Quin
  <[email-masked]>
  
  Typography and Why it matters, Fernand Baudin.
  
  There is no better introduction than [it].  It's not a primer on
  subjects such as "what does Avant Garde look like," or "This is a good
  font for books." It is a good primer on the things you need to know
  before the rest should be considered. He's a lovely writer, to boot.
  
  [My copy is at work, so I may have munged the title-look up Baudin in
  "Books in Print" and improvise :-)]
  
  Ari Davidow <[email-masked]>
  
  Better Type, Betty Binns
  
  It's definitely not a lightweight beginner's introduction, but I've
  found [it] to be indispensable.  It's a large-format hardcover, but you
  can find it remaindered for cheap if you look around.  The book goes
  into great detail about how factors like line spacing, line length,
  point size, and design of typeface (evenness of stroke weight,
  x-height, etc.) affect readability.  When you've gotten the basics out
  of the way and want to learn more about the fine nuances of type color,
  this book is an absolute must.  David Mandl <[email-masked]>
  
  Printing Types: An Introduction..., S. Lawson, (revised) 1990
  
  I'd also recommend Alexander S. Lawson's books especially /Printing
  Types: An Intro.../ (revised), 1990, which includes electronic types
  now.  Bill Ricker <[email-masked]>
  
  Tally of Types, Stanley Morrison, Cambridge University Press.
  
  A keepsake for CUP on the Monotype fonts he'd acquired for them when he
  was Type Advisor to both Brit.Monotype & CUP (Cambridge University
  Press, Cambs.UK), which discusses his hindsight on some of the great
  revival fonts and some of the better new fonts.  Bill Ricker
  <[email-masked]>
  
  Chicago Manual of Style, University of Chicago Press, 1982;
                ISBN 0-226-10390-0.
  
  The chapter on Design and Typography is most directly relevant, but
  there are a lot of hints scattered all through the Chicago Manual on
  making your words more readable and your pages more attractive.  Stan
  Brown <[email-masked]>
  
  X Window System Administrator's Guide (O'Reilly X Window System Guides,
  volume 8), O'Reilly
  
  It gives advice about setting up fonts, etc.  Liam Quin <[email-masked]>
  
  How Bodoni intended his types to look Bodoni, Giambattista. Fregi e
  Majuscole Incise e Fuse de ...  Bodoni, Harvard University Library
  (repr).
  
  Inexpensive collectible, reproduced as a keepsake by the Houghton
  Library at Harvard. [wdr]
  
  The Elements of Typographic Style, Robert Bringhurst, Hartley & Marks
  0-88179-033-8 pbk \$15, Z246.B74 1992 0-88179-110-5 cloth, \$25.
  
  A typography for desktop publishers who want to absorb some style.
  Informed by the historical european tradition and the desktop
  advertising, tempered by oriental yin-yang and examples. A page-turner
  with repeat-read depth.
  
  The only book I've seen that discusses page proportions that admits
  there are more than three ways that describes how to find one that
  feels good for your page. [wdr]
  
  Hermann Zapf on the cover-blurb: "All desktop typographers should study
  this book. ... I wish to see this book become the Typographers' Bible."
  
  Printing It, Clifford Burke, Ballantine,  0-345-02694-2.
  
  Manual for the hobby letterpress printer. [wdr]
  
  Twentieth Century Type Designers, Sebastian Carter, Taplinger, 1987.
  
  Discusses the talented adaptators of old faces to machine caster and
  film/laser, as well as the designers of new works.  Indexed? [wdr]
  
  Design with Type, Carl Dair, University of Toronto Press, 0-8020-1426-7.
  
  In print again (or still?); the ISBN above may be stale.
  
  A great introduction to the issues of practicality and taste that
  confront the users of type. A prized possession. I only regret that the
  book does not include among the excerpts from his Westvaco pamphlets
  the Seven Don'ts of Typography. [wdr]
  
  Typography 6: The Annual of the Type Directors Club, Susan Davis, ed.,
  Watson-Guptill, 0-8230-5540-x.
  
  Specimens of Type Faces in the U.S. G.P.O., John J. Deviny, director.,
  US G.P.O.
  
  Practice of Typography: Plain Printing Types, Theodore Low De Vinne,
  Century Co./DeVinne Press.
  
  One of the earlier critical studies, in four volumes of which this is
  my personal favorite, and still a classic reference. If one wants to
  understand 18th and 19th century typography in context, this writer
  lived the transition  from eclectic to standard sizes, and comments
  with taste. [wdr]
  
  An Essay on Typography, Eric Gill, Godine,  0-87923-762-7.
  
  The Alphabet and Elements of Lettering, Frederic W. Goudy, Dorset Press
  (Marboro Books), 0-88029-330-6
  
  Lovely. A wonderful way to learn Goudy's taste.
  
  Stanley Morison Displayed, Herbert Jones,  Frederick Muller Ltd / W,
  0-584-10352-2.
  
  Lovely. A wonderful way to learn Morrison's taste.
  
  Printing Types: An Introduction..., Alexander S. Lawson et. al., Beacon
  1971,?Godine? 1990; (2nd Ed includes electronic types now)
  
  "Good introduction to comparisons of typefaces, with a detailed history
  and a key family or face of each general category.  Denounces rigid
  indexes of type faces." [wdr]
  
  Anatomy of a Typeface, Alexander Lawson,  Godine, 0-87923-333-8,
  Z250.L34 1990
  
  Deep description of the authors' favorite exemplar and its influences
  and relatives in each type category. It follows, without explicating,
  the category system developed in the prior book. [wdr]
  
  Types of Typefacs and how to recognize them, J. Ben Lieberman,
  Sterling, 1968
  
  "This isn't very good really, but it does give lots of examples of the
  main categories." [Liam] [Old bibliographies praised this one, but I
  haven't seen it so I can't comment.- wdr]
  
  Tally of Types (& other titles), Stanley Morrison,  Cambridge U. Press.
  
  A keepsake for CUP on the Monotype fonts he'd acquired for them when he
  was Type Advisor to both Brit. Monotype & CUP (Cambridge University
  Press, Cambs.UK), which discusses his hindsight on some of the great
  revival fonts and some of the better new fonts. [wdr]
  
  Rookledge's International Type Finder 2nd, Perfect, Christopher and
  Gordon Rookledge, Ed Moyer Bell Ltd / Rizzoli,  1-55921-052-4,
  Z250.P42 [1st Ed was NY: Beil 1983]
  
  "Lg. trade pb. Indexed by stylistic & characteristic features. Shows
  A-Z, a-z, 0-9 in primary figures, whether lining or ranging.
  Particularly distinctive sorts are marked for ease of comparison.
  Separate tables collect the distinctive characters for assistance  in
  identifying a sample." [wdr]
  
  English Printers' Ornaments, Henry R. Plomer, Burt Franklin
  
  Paragraphs on Printing, Bruce Rogers, [Rudge] Dover, 0-486-23817-2
  
  Digital Typography: An Introduction to Type and Composition for
  Computer System Design, Richard Rubinstein, Addison-Wesley, Reading,
  Massachusetts: 1988. 340pp.
  
  For people who are disappointed with how the type looks on the laser,
  this book explains the subleties of that medium and of the screen that
  others miss. This is a study of the Human Factors of computer
  typographic systems. [wdr]
  
  The Case for Legibility, John Ryder, The Bodley Head,  0-370-30158-7,
  Z250.A4
  
  The Solotype Catalog of 4,147 Display typefaces, Dan X. Solo, Dover,
  0-486-27169-2,   Z250.5.D57S654 19
  
  "Working catalog of a specialty Graphics Arts shop.  They use
  proprietary optical special effects techniques to get Desktop
  Publishing effects, and more, without the laser-printer grain.  Great
  listing of 19th Century Decorated Types - probably the largest
  collection in the world. Prices to order headlines from them are NOT
  cheap however.  Their services are for professional or serious hobby
  use only. Solo's previous Dover books show some number of complete
  alphabets of a  general peculiar style; this one shows small fragments
  of his entire usable collection, important as an index.  (According to
  private correspondence, they have more faces that have not yet been
  restored to usable condition.) Not well indexed, but indexed." [wdr]
  
  Stop Stealing Sheep & find out how type works, Erik Spiekermann & E.M.
  Ginger., Adobe Press, 1993
  
  Introductory, motivational.  If you wonder why there are so many type
  faces in the world, this is the book for you! [Liam] [The title refers
  to the old joke: "A man who would  letterspace lowercase would also
  steal sheep." [wdr]]
  
  The Art & Craft of Handmade Paper, Vance Studley, Dover, 0-486-26421-1,
  TS1109.S83 1990
  
  Letters of Credit, Walter Tracey, Godine Press
  
  "I can't recommend this too highly.  It's not as introductory as the
  Sheep Book, but conveys a feeling of love and respect for the letter
  forms, and covers a lot of ground very, very well." [Liam]
  
  Printing Types: Their History, Forms & Use, Daniel Berkely Updike,
  Harvard University Press, reprint by Dover.
  
  The standard reference. Tour-de-force history of type and type-styles.
  A trifle conservative in its biases, but typography is conservative for
  good reason: readability. Check the addenda for his final words on
  newer faces. [wdr]
  
  1.  I believe the Dover edition to be 3 vols Pbk; both the collectable
  and later Harvard U.P. editions were two vols hbk.
  
  2.  I am informed by my bookseller & Books In Print that the Dover
  edition is out of print. *sigh*  If a source be known, let me know.
  Collectible HUP eds are not cheap, although later HUP eds may be had.
  Most libararies have later HUP or Dover eds. [wdr]
  
  Modern Encyclopedia of Typefaces, 1960-90, Lawrence W. Wallis, Van
  Nostrand Reinhold, 0-442-30809-4, Z250.W238 1990
  
  "Gives examples of most typefaces, almost all digital, designed &
  distributed  in the last 30 years. Cross indexed by foundry and
  designer, and sources and  looks-likes. Some historical bits.  Shows
  full a-z,A-Z,0-9, a few points  (punctuation); and 0-9 again if both
  lining and oldstyle supplied.  Only   complaint is that it omits small
  caps even from what few fonts have 'em and the accented characters, of
  which most have some but too few.  List \$25." [wdr]
  
  About Alphabets: Some Marginal Notes on Type Design, Hermann Zapf, MIT
  Press, 0-262-74003-6
  
  Hermann Zapf & His Design Philosophy, Hermann Zapf, Society of
  Typographic Arts, Chicago
  
  "Anything about, by, or vaguely connected with Hermann Zapf is probably
  worth reading several times :-)" [Liam]
  
  Manuale Typographicum, Hermann Zapf,  MIT Press, 0-262-74004-4
  
  There are two books of this title  (portrait and landscape); this is
  the only mass-market edition of either. Both are Zapf's selections of
  interesting typographical quotations in his inimitable display
  typography. [wdr]
  
  Microsoft Windows 3.1 Programmer's Reference, Microsoft Press.
  
  Documents the Panose system of typeface classification.  Probably
  contains a general discussion of TrueType under MS Windows 3.1.
  
  Introduction to Typography, 3rd ed, Faber, London, 1962.
  
  A very good introduction for any beginner. Also discusses things like
  illustrations and cover design, although not in great detail.
  
  Simon was a purist, as the editor of the 3rd edition remarks.  He did
  not mention phototypesetting in his original edition, but some
  observations on its uses and abuses have since been added.  Anders
  Thulin <[email-masked]>
  
  Eve Damaziere contributes:
  
  Twentieth Century Type, Lewis Blackwell, Calmann & King, London (GB),
  1992. Chez Flammarion (1993 - 256 p.) pour l'edition francaise (french
  edition).
  
  It's a very intelligent account of the history of type in our century,
  and its links to art, technics and politics (history). Lots of
  pictures, too. At the end of it, a "description and classification of
  types", from the 15th century up to now : the author follows the
  classification of Maximilien Vox (1952), a french graphist.
  
  [ed: additional bibliographic information appears in the file
  "Additional-bibliography" on
  http://www.ora.com/homepages/comp.fonts/FAQ.html.  I have not yet had
  time to integrate this bibliographic information into the FAQ]
  
Subject: 1.19. Font Encoding Standards
  
  What is a character set?
  ========================
  
  A character set is a collection of symbols in a specific order.  Some
  common character sets are ASCII and ISO Latin 1.
  
  What is an encoding vector?
  ===========================
  
  The term "encoding vector" is most frequently heard in the context of
  PostScript fonts. An encoding vector embodies a particular character
  set, it is simply the list of all the characters in the character set
  in the order in which they occur.
  
  Most font technologies limit a particular encoding to 256 characters;
  an Adobe Type 1 font, for example, may contain an arbitrary number of
  characters, but no single encoding vector can contain more than 256.
  
  Some common encodings are:
  
     * Adobe Standard Encoding - the default encoding of many PS Type1
       fonts
  
     * Apple Standard Encoding - the default encoding on a Mac
  
     * US ASCII                - seven bit ASCII
  
     * ISO Latin-1             - an eight bit multi-national character
       set encoding
  
     * Cork Encoding           - the TeX community's eight bit standard
  
     * FC                      - an eight bit encoding for African
       languages
  
     * TeX text                - the TeX community's seven bit defacto
       standard (CMR)
  
  Where can I get them?
  =====================
  
  You can get tables showing the layout of many standard character sets
  from the Kermit distribution (via anonymous ftp from
  watsun.cc.columbia.edu in /kermit/charsets.
  
Subject: 1.20. PostScript
  
  What About PostScript UNIQUEIDs?
  ================================
  
  This section was constructed from a posting by Johannes Schmidt-Fischer
  in Jun 1993.
  
  All PostScript Type 1 fonts should contain a UniqueId.  This is a
  number which should be, as the name suggests, unique (at least among
  the fonts that you download to the printer at any given time).
  
  There are many PostScript fonts on the 'Net which have identical
  UniqeIds.  If two of these fonts are downloaded to the same printer at
  the same time, attempts to use either font may cause the wrong
  characters to be printed.
  
  In a nutshell, the reason that the wrong characters may be printed is
  that the printer may be storing the rendered glyphs in its font cache,
  addressed by UniqueID.  So, if two fonts, /Foo and /Bar, both have
  UniqueID=5 and /Foo's 10pt "A" is currently in the cache, a request for
  /Bar's 10pt "A" will cause the wrong character to be printed. Rather
  than rendering /Bar's "A" from its (correct and unambiguous) outline,
  the printer will note that the cache contains a 10pt "A" for font 5 and
  will copy it from the cache (resulting in /Foo's "A" printing for /Bar).
  
  Adobe's "Red Book" contains a detailed discussion of this topic.
  
  Can a Type 1 Font Be Shaded?
  ============================
  
  David Lemon contributes:
  
  There are three ways to get grey into a font. The first is to make a
  series of Type 1 fonts, each of which will be used for a single shade
  of grey (or other color). The user then sets copies of the characters
  on top of each other, selecting each and setting it to the shade
  desired. It's a bit inconvenient (and won't work in a word processor)
  but it gets full resolution, good hinting and gives the user lots of
  control. This is the approach Adobe has used in its "chromatic" fonts
  (as in Adobe Wood Type 3 and Copal) and is viable for both Type 1 and
  TrueType formats.
  
  As an alternative, the designer can approximate shades of grey in the
  characters by using many little dots (a sort of halftone effect) or
  lines (as in cross-hatching). This leads to pretty complex characters,
  which may choke some rasterizers, and won't hint well. As with the
  first method, this is viable (more or less) for both Type 1 and
  TrueType.
  
  The third method is more direct but limited. In this approach, the
  designer/producer creates the shades of grey in a font-editing program.
  The limitation is that such a font must be written in Type 3, which is
  a generalized PostScript format (Type 1 and TrueType recognize only
  solid shapes). Such a font won't be supported by ATM, so your screen
  display will suffer and you'll be restricted to PostScript printers. On
  the plus side, your greys will be rendered at the full resolution of
  the printer you use.
  
Subject: 1.21. TrueType
  
  George Moore announces the following information regarding TrueType
  fonts:
  
  "I am pleased to announce that there is now one central location for all
  official Microsoft TrueType information available on the Internet.  The
  9 files listed below are available for anonymous ftp access on
  ftp.microsoft.com in the /developr/drg/TrueType-Info directory.  The
  most important of those files is the TrueType Font Files
  Specifications, a 400 page book which describes in excruciating detail
  how to build a TrueType font.  Other information is also available in
  the same directory and other files will be added from time to time.
  
  For those people who do not have ftp access to the Internet can find the
  same information available for downloading on Compuserve in the
  Microsoft developer relations forum (GO MSDR) in the TrueType library.
  
  Please be aware that the TrueType specifications is a copyrighted work
  of Microsoft and Apple and can not be resold for profit.
  
  TrueType developer information files on ftp.microsoft.com:
  
    1. ttspec1.zip, ttspec2.zip, and ttspec3.zip
  
       The TrueType Specification:
  
       These three compressed files contain the "TrueType Font Files
       Specifications", a 400 page book complete with illustrations which
        details how to construct a TrueType font from scratch (or build
       a tool   to do so), the TrueType programming language, and the
       complete format   of each sub-table contained in the .TTF file.
       These documents are   stored in Word for Windows 2.0 format and
       require Windows 3.1 for   printing.  See the "readme.doc" (in
       ttspec1.zip) for printing   instructions.  Requires 2.5MB of disk
       space after uncompression.
  
       This manual is a superset of the similar specifications from Apple
       and   has added information specific to Windows that is not
       present in the   Apple version.
  
    2. ttfdump.zip
  
       An MS-DOS executable which will dump the contents of a TrueType
       font   out in a human-readable fashion.  It allows you to dump the
       entire   font, or just specific sub-tables.  This tool, combined
       with the   specifications above, allows very effective debugging
       or exploration   of any TrueType font.  For example, to dump the
       contents of the 'cmap'   (character code to glyph index mapping)
       table, enter:
  
       ttfdump fontname.ttf -tcmap -nx
  
       Entering "ttfdump" with no options will give you a help message.
  
    3. ttfname.zip
  
       Example C source code on how to parse the contents of a TrueType
       font.    Although this particular example will open up the file
       and locate the   font name contained within the 'name' table, it
       could be readily   adapted to parse any other structure in the
       file.  This compressed zip   file also contains many useful
       include files which have pre-defined   structures set up for the
       internal tables of a TrueType font file.    This code may be
       useful for developers who wish to parse the TrueType   data stream
       returned by the GetFontData() API in Windows 3.1.
  
    4. tt-win.zip
  
       A 31 page Word for Windows 2.0 document which is targeted for the
       Windows developer who is interested in learning about some of the
        capabilities TrueType adds to Windows 3.1.  Contains many
       illustrations.
  
    5. embeddin.zip
  
       A text file which describes all of the information necessary for a
        Windows developer to add TrueType font embedding capabilities to
       their   application.  Font embedding allows the application to
       bundle the   TrueType fonts that were used in that document and
       transport it to   another platform where the document can be
       viewed or printed   correctly.
  
    6. tt-talk.zip
  
       The TrueType Technical Talks 1 and 2.  These text files describe
       some   of the things that are happening with TrueType behind the
       scenes in   Windows 3.1.  The first document walks the reader
       through all of the   steps that occur from when the user first
       presses the key on the   keyboard until that character appears on
       the screen (scaling, hinting,   drop out control, caching and
       blitting).  The second talk describes   one of the unique features
       of TrueType called non-linear scaling which   allows the font
       vendor to overcome some of the physical limitations of   low
       resolution output devices.
  
    7. lucida.zip
  
       This text file contains useful typographic information on the 22
       Lucida fonts which are contained in the Microsoft TrueType Font
       Pack   for Windows.  It gives pointers on line-layout, mixing and
       matching   fonts in the family and a little history on each
       typeface.  This   information was written by the font's designers,
       Chuck Bigelow & Kris   Holmes."
  
Subject: 1.22. Unicode
  
  [ed: This is a summary of the Unicode info I've gleaned from the net
  recently, the whole Unicode issue needs to be addressed better by the
  FAQ...someday...  someday...I'll get to reorganize the whole thing]
  
  What Is Unicode?
  ================
  
  Charles A. Bigelow notes:
  
  The authors of the Unicode standard emphasize the fact that Unicode is a
  character encoding, not a glyph encoding. This might seem like a
  metaphysical distinction, in which characters have some "semantic"
  content (that is, they signify something to literates) and and glyphs
  are particular instantiations or renderings of characters--Plato talked
  about this kind of stuff--but in practice it means that most ligatures
  are not represented in Unicode, nor swash variants, nor figure variants
  (except for superior and inferior, which are semantically distinct from
  baseline figures), and so on.
  
  For further information, consult The Unicode Standard: Worldwide
  Character Encoding Version 1.0, Vol. 1 (alphabets & symbols) and Vol 2.
  (Chinese, Japanese, Korean characters), by The Unicode Consortium,
  Addison Wesley Publishing Co, 1991, ISBN 0-201-56788-1, 0-201-60845-6.
  
  What is the Unicode Consortium?
  ===============================
  
  The Unicode Consortium is an international body responsible for
  maintaining the Unicode standard.  Their email address is
  <[email-masked]>
  
  To obtain more information on Unicode or to order their printed material
  and/or diskettes contact:
  
                           Steven A. Greenfield
  
                          Unicode Office Manager
  
                           1965 Charleston Road
  
                          Mountain View, CA 94043
  
                             Tel. 415-966-4189
  
                             Fax. 415-966-1637
  
  Unicode Editing
  ===============
  
  James Matthew Farrow contributes:
  
  I use `sam' for all by text editing.  It is X editor based on an editor
  for the blit called jim.  Papers describing sam as well as a
  distribution of sam itself are available for ftp from research.att.com.
  The sam there is a Unix port of the Plan 9 version.  Plan 9 is a full
  unicode operating system, even around before NT!  The libraries sam is
  built upon therefore support 16 bit wide characters.  The graphics
  library, supplied with it at present does not.  However they may be
  planning to distribute a new version which does soon.  The library just
  plugs in replacing the library that comes with sam.  No modification is
  necessary.  Character are stored using the utf-2 encoding.
  
  All of the files I had before I started working with sam were 7 bit
  ascii so no conversion was needed.  Now I have ditched xterm in favour
  of 9term: a terminal emulator in the style of 81/2 (the Plan 9
  interface).  This lets me type Unicode characters on the command line,
  as part of filenames, in mail, wherever and most Unix utilities cope
  without modification.  This is about to be released.  I'm looking for
  beta testers.  ;-)
  
  Is a special keyboard required?
  -------------------------------
  
  No.  ASCII Characters are typed as normal.  Common characters above
  0x7f are typed using two letter abbreviations.  The table is similar to
  the troff special character codes, e.g, Alt-12 gives you a 1/2, Alt-'e
  gives you e acute, Alt-bu a bullet and so on.  This table is hardwired
  into the library at present but is trivial to change.  Other codes are
  accessed by typing their hex value, for instance the smiley is
  Alt-X263a (0x263a being a smiley character in the Unicode character
  set).
  
  Is roman-to-Unicode conversion available?
  -----------------------------------------
  
  All normal 7 bit ascii characters are encoded as themselves so no
  translation is needed.  There are conversion routines in the library
  (runetochar and chartorune) which will do the conversion and it should
  be pretty simple to convert files already in another format.  You would
  have to write something to do the transliteration yourself.  A small
  patch to the system would let you enter different language `modes' for
  text entry.
  
  Are there PostScript or TrueType fonts available?
  =================================================
  
  Apparently there is a version of the Lucida fonts by Bigelow and Holmes
  which support Unicode.  This is the information I have on them.
  
  [ed: quoting another source]
  
  [Windows NT] will ship with a Unicode TrueType font containing
  approximately 1,500 characters.  The font is called "Lucida Sans
  Unicode" and was specifically designed by Bigelow and Holmes for
  Microsoft to contain the following Unicode sets:
  
       ASCII
       Latin 1
       European Latin
       Extended Latin
       Standard Phonetic
       Modifier Letters
       Generic Diacritical
       Greek
       Cyrillic
       Extended Cyrillic
       Hebrew
       Currency Symbols
       Letterlike Symbols
       Arrows
       Mathematical Operators
       Super & Subscript
       Form & Chart Components
       Blocks
       Geometric Shapes
       Miscellaneous Technical
       Miscellaneous Dingbats
  
  The bitmap fonts which comes with the utf version of the libXg graphics
  library (the library upon which sam is built) support a sparse subset
  of the full character set.  That is, only a few of them have glyphs at
  present.  A font editor such as xfedor would let you add more.  The list
  of those currently available is pretty much as the above list.
  
  I use 9term and sam as a matter of course now and have for several
  months.  I enjoy the convenience of putting special characters and
  accented characters in my mail as well as being able to do some
  phonetic work all in the one terminal/editor suite.
  
Subject: 1.23. Can I Print Checks with the MICR Font?
  
  This comes up all the time: standard ordinary laser toner is magnetic
  and will be read by the banks.  The gotcha is that standard laser toner
  rubs off in the *very* high-speed sorting equipment that are used, and
  this makes read rates drop low and the banks will hate you.
  
  I researched check printers for a customer, and was surprised to find
  this.  The Troy(tm) printers he bought are basically stock Ricoh
  engines that have slightly tighter paper handling (for registration),
  plus they add a proprietary Teflon-type powder coating on the output
  path to coat the checks.
  
  I saw some examples of checks printed with and without this special
  coating after running through something like 40 passes through check
  processing equipment, and the one without the coating was a mess. These
  require special handling that the banks do *not* like.  Apparently,
  they go after companies that issue these kinds of checks with special
  processing fees.
  
Subject: 1.24. Rules of Thumb
  
  It is difficult to set out guidelines for font usage, because almost
  any rule can be brilliantly broken under the right circumstances.
  
     * General guidelines:
  
          * Never lose track of the kind of work you're doing. An effect
            that would ruin a newsletter might be just the thing for a
            record cover.  Know when you can safely sacrifice legibility
            for artistic effect.
  
          * Keep in mind the final reproduction process you'll be using.
            Some effects (like reversed type, white on black) can be hard
            to read off an ordinary 300-dpi laser, but will work if
            finals are done on a high-resolution printer, such as a
            Linotronic. Will the pages be photocopied? Offset? Onto rough
            paper, shiny paper?  All these factors can and should
            influence your choice of fonts and how you use them.
  
          * Running some comparative tests is a good idea. Better to blow
            off a few sheets of laser paper now than to see a problem
            after thousands of copies are made.
  
          * No one can teach you font aesthetics; it must be learned by
            example.  Look at beautiful magazines, posters, books with
            wide eyes, so that you can see how it's done. Examine ugly
            printed matter critically and consider why it's hard to read.
  
     * Good rules of thumb:
  
          * If you need a condensed font, find one that was designed that
            way, rather than scaling an existing font down to a
            percentage.  Any scaling distorts a font's design; excessive
            scaling interferes with legibility - this goes for widening
            as well as narrowing. Extended faces do exist, although they
            aren't as common as condensed ones.
  
          * Many people feel that bold or italic type, or type in ALL
            CAPS, is more legible: "This is the most important part of
            the newsletter, let's put it in bold." In fact, legibility
            studies show that such type is actually harder to read in
            bulk. Keep the text in a normal style and weight, and find
            another way to emphasize it - box it, illustrate it, run it
            in color, position it focally.
  
          * Too much reverse type - white on black - is hard on the eyes.
            It can be a nice effect if used sparingly. Don't reverse a
            serif font, though - its details will tend to fill in. Stick
            to reversing bold sans-serifs, and remember to space them out
            a bit more than usual.
  
          * It is always safest to use a plain serif font for large
            amounts of text. Because Times is widely used, it doesn't
            mean it should be avoided. Fonts like Palatino, Times,
            Century Old Style are deservedly popular because people can
            read a lot of text set in such faces without strain.
  
            Don't expect anyone to read extensive text set in a condensed
            font.
  
          * As point size gets bigger, track tighter, and (if the
            software allows) reduce the spacebands as well. A spaceband
            in a headline size (anything over 14 point) should be about
            as wide as a letter "i".
  
          * If you only have a few large headlines, hand-kerning the
            type, pair by pair, can make the end result much more
            pleasing.  Besides, working with fonts this closely makes
            them familiar.
  
          * Column width and justification are major elements in design.
            The narrower the column, the smaller the type can be; wide
            rows of small type are very hard to read. Often it's a better
            idea to set narrow columns flush left rather than justified,
            otherwise large gaps can fall where hyphenation isn't
            possible.
  
          * Use curly quotes.
  
          * Don't put two spaces at the end of a line (.  ) instead of (.
            ) when using a proportionally spaced font.
  
  This is Info file compfont.info, produced by Makeinfo-1.55 from the
  input file FAQ.texinfo.
  
Subject: 1.25. Acknowledgements
  
  The moderators would like to express their gratitude to the whole
  community for providing insightful answers to innumerable questions.  In
  particular, the following people (listed alphabetically) have
  contributed directly to this FAQ (apologies, in advance, if anyone has
  been forgotten):
  
                       Masumi Abe <[email-masked]>
  
                       Glenn Adams <[email-masked]>
  
            Daniel Amor <[email-masked]>
  
                 Borris Balzer <[email-masked]>
  
               Charles A. Bigelow <[email-masked]>
  
                   David J. Birnbaum <[email-masked]>
  
                Tim Bradshaw <[email-masked]>
  
                         Morgan S. Brilliant <???>
  
                      Arlen Britton <[email-masked]>
  
                       Stan Brown <[email-masked]>
  
                Scott Brumage <[email-masked]>
  
                     Lee Cambell <[email-masked]>
  
                 Terry Carroll <[email-masked]>
  
              Gerd Castan <[email-masked]>
  
                       Ari Davidow <[email-masked]>
  
       Eve Damaziere <[email-masked]> (c/o Stephane Bortzmeyer)
  
                  Lawrence D'Oliveiro <[email-masked]>
  
                     Pat Farrell <[email-masked]>
  
                 James Matthew Farrow <[email-masked]>
  
                Stephen Friedl <[email-masked]>
  
              Peter J. Gentry <[email-masked]>
  
                 Yossi Gil <[email-masked]>
  
               Timothy Golobic <[email-masked]>
  
                   Kesh Govinder <[email-masked]>
  
              Piercarlo Antonio Grandi <[email-masked]>
  
                      Robert Green <[email-masked]>
  
                     Rick Heli <[email-masked]>
  
                 Jeremy Henderson <[email-masked]>
  
                      Henry ??? <[email-masked]>
  
                      Gary <[email-masked]>
  
                   Berthold K.P. Horn <[email-masked]>
  
                      Peter Honig <[email-masked]>
  
                      Don Hosek <[email-masked]>
  
                     Bharathi Jagadeesh <[email-masked]>
  
               Chang Jin-woong <[email-masked]>
  
                     Darrell Leland <[email-masked]>
  
                       David Lemon <[email-masked]>
  
                          Jon <[email-masked]>
  
                      ??? <[email-masked]>
  
                      ??? <[email-masked]>
  
                      Otto Makela <[email-masked]>
  
                  David Mandl <[email-masked]>
  
                Kate McDonnell <[email-masked]>
  
                   George Moore <[email-masked]>
  
                   Robert Morris <[email-masked]>
  
                  Stephen Moye <[email-masked]>
  
                   Erlend Nagel <[email-masked]>
  
                Terry O'Donnell <[email-masked]>
  
               Rick Pali <[email-masked]>
  
                    Sean Palmer <[email-masked]>
  
                    Jon Pastor <[email-masked]>
  
                PenDragon <[email-masked]>
  
                  Stephen Peters <[email-masked]>
  
                     Bill Phillips <[email-masked]>
  
               Thomas W. Phinney <[email-masked]>
  
                      Jim Reese <[email-masked]>
  
                      Bill Ricker <[email-masked]>
  
                          Liam Quin <[email-masked]>
  
                            Henry Schneiker <?>
  
                       Tom Scott <[email-masked]>
  
                 Bill Shirley <[email-masked]>
  
               Cameron Smith <[email-masked]>
  
                  Daniel S. Smith <[email-masked]>
  
                     Frank F. Smith <[email-masked]>
  
                    Werenfried Spit <[email-masked]>
  
                      Anthony Starks <[email-masked]>
  
                    Ike Stoddard <[email-masked]>
  
                   Danny Thomas <[email-masked]>
  
                   Anders Thulin <[email-masked]>
  
                  Ian Tresman <[email-masked]>
  
                    Bill Troop <[email-masked]>
  
                   Erik-Jan Vens <[email-masked]>
  
                     Amanda Walker <[email-masked]>
  
               Jason Lee Weiler <[email-masked]>