Re: Why people still want to encode precomposed letters

From: Hans Aberg (haberg@math.su.se)
Date: Wed Nov 26 2008 - 03:22:28 CST

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    On 26 Nov 2008, at 01:43, Christopher Fynn wrote:

    >> So electronic typesetting influenced the design of typefaces
    >> before it even existed?
    >
    > Phototypesetting, which is not 'traditional', goes back at least to
    > the early 1950s. Some phototypesetting system used fonts on strips
    > of film a film matrix or on disks, but later other systems exposed
    > the photographic paper with projections from a CRT using
    > 'electronic' fonts.

    The typesetting principle changed significantly when electronic
    typesetting became generally available, as on personal computers, and
    the typesetting is no linger done by a core of professional
    typesetters. This starts somewhere in the late 1980s, I would think,
    mainly in the form of word-processors that cannot do kerning. With
    such personal computers, it also becomes possibly for everyone to
    design their own fonts, by people who do not know the traditional
    design rules.

    This article says although phototypesetting was developed in the
    1940s, it first became popular in the 1970s. So it is not likely to
    have affected general font design much before that, and because of
    that social factor mentioned above, not even then.
       http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phototypesetting

    > Some of the best zoom lens designs were first developed for varying
    > the point size of type in phototypesetting systems

    Although normal sizes and up can be scaled proportionally, small
    point sizes may need special designs, for example, being a bit wider.

       Hans



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