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- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQS);faqs.277
-
-
-
- Resolution `hints'
-
- When a character is described in outline format the outline has
- unlimited resolution. If you make it ten times as big, it is just as
- accurate as if it were ten times as small.
-
- However, to be of use, we must transfer the character outline to a
- sheet of paper through a device called a raster image processor
- (RIP). The RIP builds the image of the character out of lots of
- little squares called picture elements (pixels).
-
- The problem is, a pixel has physical size and can be printed only as
- either black or white. Look at a sheet of graph paper. Rows and
- columns of little squares (think: pixels). Draw a large `O' in the
- middle of the graph paper. Darken in all the squares touched by the
- O. Do the darkened squares form a letter that looks like the O you
- drew? This is the problem with low resolution (300 dpi). Which pixels
- do you turn on and which do you leave off to most accurately
- reproduce the character?
-
- All methods of hinting strive to fit (map) the outline of a character
- onto the pixel grid and produce the most pleasing/recognizable
- character no matter how coarse the grid is.
-
- [Ed note: deleted some paragraphs that are no longer true. Times change...]
-
- Optical Scaling
-
- Optical Scaling modifies the relative shape of a character to
- compensate for the visual effects of changing a character's size. As
- a character gets smaller, the relative thickness of strokes, the size
- of serifs, the width of the character, the intercharacter spacing,
- and interline spacing should increase. Conversely, as a character
- gets larger, the relative thickness, widths, and spacing should
- decrease.
-
- Contrast this with linear scaling, in which all parts of a character
- get larger or smaller at the same rate, making large characters look
- wide and heavy (strokes are too thick, serifs are too big) while
- small characters look thin and weak.
-
- Kerning
-
- As applied to PostScript fonts, kerning refers to kern pairs. A kern
- pair specifies two characters (e.g., A and V) and the distance to
- move the second character relative to the first. The typical use of a
- kern pair is to remove excessive space between a pair of characters.
- However, it may also be used to add space.
-
- PostScript clones
-
- There are currently several printer manufacturers on the market with
- PostScript clones. To be viable, a PostScript clone must comply with
- the `red book' (PS Language Reference Manual).
-
- In order to avoid paying royalties to Adobe, and because Adobe's Type 1
- font format was originally preprietary, many PostScript interpreters use
- some other font format. Sun uses F3, and some other vendors use
- Bitstream's Speedo format, for example. The only real problem this causes
- is that the widths of characters (the `font matrics') may vary from
- Adobe's, so that programs that assume the Adobe character widths will
- produce poor quality output. Bitstream fonts used to be particularly bad
- in the early days, but they and most or all of the other vendors have
- solved those problems.
-
- Apple TrueType [Ed note: formerly "Royal (`sfnt')"] format and System 7
-
- Apple's new System 7.0 supports a new format of outline font that will
- allow high-quality characters of any size to be displayed on the screen.
- TrueType stores font outlines as B-spline curves along with programmed
- resolution hints. B-spline curves are faster to compute and easier to
- manipulate than the Bezier curves used in PostScript.
-
- Adobe is not going to support Apple's new format by converting the
- Adobe/Linotype library to B-spline format. There are two reasons for
- this: First, there is no support for font encryption (yes, the hooks
- are there, but nothing is implemented). Second, Adobe does not want
- to dilute PostScript and its font library. However, the Macintosh is
- too big a market to simply turn away from. Therefore, Adobe will
- provide its Font Manager to display its own fonts on the Mac screen.
- Apple ships Adobe's ATM for this purpose.
-
- *-[Unquote]---------------------------------------------------------*
-
- 2. Where can I get _____ fonts.
-
- Before I go any farther, let me extol the virtues of the Archie servers.
- If you need to find something on the net, and you have any idea what it
- might be called, Archie is the place to go. In North America, telnet to
- "archie.rutgers.edu" and login as "archie". There are many other servers
- around the world, any Archie server can give you a list of other servers.
- There are better documents than this to describe Archie and you should be
- able to find them from the above starting point. If you have trouble,
- feel free to ask norm <walsh@cs.umass.edu> (via Email please, no need to
- clutter comp.fonts with a query about Archie ;-).
-
- In addition to the telnet option, several archie clients exist including
- a very nice XArchie implementation.
-
- Adobe Type 1 Fonts in MS-DOS/Unix Format:
-
- ftp.cica.indiana.edu:/pub/pc/win3/fonts
- ftp.cica.indiana.edu:/pub/pc/win3/fonts/atm
- archive.umich.edu:/msdos/mswindows/fonts
-
- Adobe Type 1 Fonts in Mac Format:
-
- mac.archive.umich.edu:/mac/system.extensions/font/type1
- sumex-aim.stanford.edu:/info-mac/font
-
- Adobe Type 3 Fonts in Mac Format:
-
- mac.archive.umich.edu:/mac/system.extensions/font/type3
-
- TrueType fonts in MS-DOS Format:
-
- ftp.cica.indiana.edu:/pub/pc/win3/truetype
-
- TrueType fonts in Mac Format:
-
- mac.archive.umich.edu:/mac/system.extensions/font/truetype
-
- TeX PK/PXL/GF fonts:
-
- The TeX community has it's own support groups that can provide better
- answers to this question. The canonical list of MetaFont fonts is
- posted occasionally to comp.text.tex. The comp.text.tex newsgroup (or
- the Info-TeX mailing list, if you do not have access to news) are good
- places to start. Email norm <walsh@cs.umass.edu> if you need more
- specific information.
-
- LaserJet bitmap fonts:
-
- wuarchive.wustl.edu:/mirrors/msdos/laser
-
- Also on other simtel20 mirrors...
-
- If you know of other archive sites (the above list is no where near
- complete) or other formats that are available on the net, please let us
- know.
-
- The sites above represent places where shareware and public domain fonts
- are available. Many, many typefaces are not available in shareware form.
- And many shareware faces are less than adequate for a variety of reasons,
- particularly at small sizes. It seems to be the consensus of the
- comp.fonts community that "you get what you pay for." If you need a
- professional quality font, you should probably buy it from a
- professional.
-
- A list of font vendors (annotated with information about non-Roman
- alphabets) was contributed by Masumi Abe <abe@adobe.com>. Masumi is
- Adobe's Manager of Typographic Marketing for Asia. [ed: as of 7/92]
-
- The list is quite long and it is posted separately. It can be retrieved
- via anonymous ftp from /pub/norm/comp.fonts on ibis.cs.umass.edu.
-
- 3. Where can I get fonts for non-Roman alphabets.
-
- As mentioned above, the list of font vendors is annotated with
- information about non-Roman alphabets. Commercially, Masumi
- <abe@adobe.com> suggests that Linguists' Software is the current [ed: as
- of 7/92] leading supplier of non-Roman fonts.
-
- 4. How can I convert my _____ font to _____ format?
-
- Conversion from one bitmapped format to another is not generally too
- difficult. Conversion from one scalable format to another is very
- difficult. Several commercial software packages claim to perform
- these tasks, but none has been favorably reviewed by the comp.fonts
- community. ATech's AllType program, in particular, has had poor
- reviews [ed: as of 7/92].
-
- For specific conversions, check the platform specific parts of the
- FAQ. Most of the conversions discussed require platform specific
- tools.
-
- Here is a summary of the conversions discussed (and the section in
- which they appear):
-
- From To Notes
- ------------------------- ------------------------- -------------
- Mac Type1 PostScript PC Type1 PostScript MS-DOS
- PC Type1 PostScript Mac Type1 PostScript Mac, commercial
- TrueType Type1 PostScript } No answer as
- Type1 PostScript TrueType } of 7/92
- PC Type1 PostScript TeX PK MS-DOS
- TeX PK HP LaserJet bitmaps MS-DOS
- HP LaserJet bitmaps TeX PK MS-DOS
- TrueType HP LaserJet bitmaps MS-DOS, hack!!
-
- In addition, Adobe ships a copy of Adobe Font Foundry with all of its
- fonts which can convert Type 1 fonts into HP LaserJet softfonts.
-
- 5. Are fonts copyrightable?
-
- This topic is hotly debated at regular intervals on comp.fonts.
- Terry Carroll <tjc50@juts.ccc.amdahl.COM> provides the following
- analysis of current [ed: as of 6/92] legislation and regulation
- regarding fonts and copyrights. Members of the comp.fonts community
- are encouraged to submit other materials that add clarity to the
- issue.
-
- It has been pointed out that this section deals primarily font copyright
- issues relevant to the United States and that this situation is not
- universal. For example, in many parts of Europe typeface designs are
- protectable.
-
- *-[Quote]-----------------------------------------------------------*
-
- First, the short answer in the USA: Typefaces are not copyrightable;
- bitmapped fonts are not copyrightable, but scalable fonts are
- copyrightable. Authorities for these conclusions follow.
-
- Before we get started, let's get some terminology down:
-
- A typeface is a set of letters, numbers, or other symbolic characters,
- whose forms are related by repeating design elements consistently
- applied in a notational system and are intended to be embodied in
- articles whose intrinsic utilitarian function is for use in composing
- text or other cognizable combinations of characters.
-
- A font is the computer file or program that is used to represent or
- create the typeface.
-
- Now, on to the legal authorities:
-
- Volume 37 of the Code of Federal Regulations specifies this about the
- copyrightability of typefaces:
-
- "The following are examples of works not subject to copyright and
- applications for registration of such works cannot be entertained: . . .
- typeface as typeface" 37 CFR 202.1(e).
-
- By the way, you won't find that in the most recent (7/1/91) edition of
- the CFR; the addition was enacted 2/21/92. It'll be in the next
- edition, though. It's described in the 2/21/92 edition of the Federal
- Register, page 6201 (57 FR 6201). The change didn't actually change the
- law, it just clarified it, and codified existing Copyright Office
- policy.
-
- The regulation is in accordance with the House of Representatives report
- that accompanied the new copyright law, when it was passed in 1976:
-
- "The Committee has considered, but chosen to defer, the possibility of
- protecting the design of typefaces. A 'typeface' can be defined as a
- set of letters, numbers, or other symbolic characters, whose forms are
- related by repeating design elements consistently applied in a
- notational system and are intended to be embodied in articles whose
- intrinsic utilitarian function is for use in composing text or other
- cognizable combinations of characters. The Committee does not regard
- the design of typeface, as thus defined, to be a copyrightable
- 'pictorial, graphic, or sculptural work' within the meaning of this bill
- and the application of the dividing line in section 101." H. R. Rep.
- No. 94-1476, 94th Congress, 2d Session at 55 (1976), reprinted in 1978
- U.S. Cong. and Admin. News 5659, 5668.
-
- It's also in accordance with the one court case I know of that has
- considered the matter: Eltra Corp. V. Ringer, 579 F.2d 294, 208 USPQ 1
- (1978, C.A. 4, Va.).
-
- The U.S. Copyright Office holds that a bitmapped font is nothing more than
- a computerized representation of a typeface, and as such is not
- copyrightable:
-
- "The [September 29, 1988] Policy Decision [published at 53 FR 38110]
- based on the [October 10,] 1986 Notice of Inquiry [published at 51 FR
- 36410] reiterated a number of previous registration decisions made by
- the [Copyright] Office. First, under existing law, typeface as such is
- not registerable. The Policy Decision then went on to state the
- Office's position that 'data that merely represents an electronic
- depiction of a particular typeface or individual letterform' [that is, a
- bitmapped font] is also not registerable." 57 FR 6201.
-
- However, scalable fonts are, in the opinion of the Copyright Office,
- computer programs, and as such are copyrightable:
-
- "... the Copyright Office is persuaded that creating scalable typefonts
- using already-digitized typeface represents a significant change in the
- industry since our previous [September 29, 1988] Policy Decision. We
- are also persuaded that computer programs designed for generating
- typeface in conjunction with low resolution and other printing devices
- may involve original computer instructions entitled protection under the
- Copyright Act. For example, the creation of scalable font output
- programs to produce harmonious fonts consisting of hundreds of
- characters typically involves many decisions in drafting the
- instructions that drive the printer. The expression of these decisions
- is neither limited by the unprotectable shape of the letters nor
- functionally mandated. This expression, assuming it meets the usual
- standard of authorship, is thus registerable as a computer program." 57
- FR 6202.
-
- *-[Unquote]---------------------------------------------------------*
-
- 6. File Formats / Font Formats / Ligatures / Standard Fonts / Glossary
-
- 6.1. File Formats
-
- Many different kinds of files are available on the net. These files
- contain many different kinds of data for many different architectures.
- Frequently, the extension (trailing end) of a filename gives a good
- clue as to the format of its contents and the architecture that it was
- created on.
-
- In order to save space, most files on the net are compressed in one
- way or another. Many compression/decompression programs exist on
- multiple architectures.
-
- Multiple files and directories are often combined into a single
- 'archive' file. Many archive formats perform compression
- automatically.
-
- 6.1.1. File Format Extensions
-
- .tar Unix 'tape archive' format. Tar files can contain multiple files
- and directories. Unlike most archiving programs, tar files are
- held together in a wrapper but are not automatically compressed
- by tar.
-
- .Z Unix 'compress' format. Compression doesn't form a wrapper around
- multiple files, it simply compresses a single file. As a result,
- you will frequently see files with the extension .tar.Z. This
- implies that the files are compressed tar archives.
-
- .hqx Macintosh 'BinHex' format. In order to reliably transfer Mac files
- from one architecture to another, they are BinHex encoded. This
- is actually an ascii file containing mostly hexadecimal digits.
- It is neither a compression program nor an archive wrapper.
-
- .sit Macintosh 'Stuffit' archive.
-
- .cpt Macintosh 'Compactor' archive.
-
- Like the .tar.Z format that is common among Unix archives, Macintosh
- archives frequently have the extensions .sit.hqx or .cpt.hqx
- indicating a BinHex'ed archive.
-
- .arc PC 'arc' archive. This is an older standard (in PC terms, at least)
- and has gone out of fashion.
-
- .zip PC 'zip' archive. This is the most common PC archive format today.
-
- .arj PC 'arj' archive.
-
- .zoo PC 'zoo' archive
-
- .lzh PC 'lha/lharc' archive.
-
- 6.2. Font Formats
-
- Just as the are many, many archive formats, there are many different
- font formats. The characteristics of some of these formats are
- discussed below. Once again, the file extension may help you to
- determine the font type. (On the Mac, the resource TYPE field is
- (probably) a better indicator).
-
- PostScript Type 1 Fonts:
-
- Postscript Type 1 fonts (Also called ATM (Adobe Type Manager) fonts,
- Type 1, and outline fonts) contains information, in outline form,
- that allows a postscript printer, or ATM to generate fonts of any
- size. Most also contain hinting information which allows fonts to
- be rendered more readable at lower resolutions and small type sizes.
-
- PostScript Type 3 Fonts:
-
- Postscript type 3 fonts are an old outline font format that is not
- compatible with ATM. Most developers have stopped using this format
- except in a few special cases, where special type 3 characteristics
- (pattern fills inside outlines, for example) have been used.
-
- TrueType Fonts:
-
- Truetype fonts are a new font format developed by Microsoft with
- Apple. The rendering engine for this font is built into system 7
- and an init, the Truetype init, is available for system 6 (freeware
- from Apple). It is also built into MS Windows v3.1. Like
- PostScript Type 1 and Type 3 fonts, it is also an outline font
- format that allows both the screen, and printers, to scale fonts to
- display them in any size.
-
- Bitmap Fonts:
-
- Bitmap fonts contain bitmaps of fonts in them. This a picture of the
- font at a specific size that has been optimized to look good at that
- size. It cannot be scaled bigger without making it look horrendously
- ugly. On the Macintosh, bitmap fonts also contain the kerning
- information for a font and must be installed with both type 1 and
- type 3 fonts. Their presence also speeds the display of commonly
- used font sizes.
-
- 6.2.1. Font Format Extensions
-
- .afm Adobe Type 1 metric information in 'ascii' format (human parsable)
- .bco Bitstream compressed outline
- .bdf Adobe's Bitmap Distribution Format. This format can be converted
- to the platform specific binary files required by the local X Windows
- server. This is a bitmap font format distributed in ASCII.
- .bez Bezier outline information
- .chr Borland stroked font file
- .fot MS-Windows TrueType format fonts
- .gf Generic font (the output of TeX's MetaFont program (possibly others?))
- .fli Font libraries produced by emTeX fontlib program. Used by emTeX
- drivers and newer versions of dvips.
- .mf TeX MetaFont font file (text file of MetaFont commands)
- .pfa Adobe Type 1 Postscript font in "ascii" format (PC/Unix)
- I believe that this format is suitable for directly downloading to
- your PostScript printer (someone correct me if I'm wrong ;-)
- .pfb Adobe Type 1 PostScript font in "binary" format (PC/Unix)
- Note: this format is not suitable for downloading directly to your
- PostScript printer. There are utilities for conversion between
- PFB and PFA (see the utilities section of the FAQ).
- .pfm Printer font metric information in Windows format
- .pk TeX packed bitmap font file (also seen as .###pk where ### is a number)
- .pl TeX 'property list' file (a human readable version of .tfm)
- .ps Frequently, any PostScript file. With respect to fonts, probably
- a Type3 font. This designation is much less 'standard' than the
- others. Other non-standard extensions are .pso, .fon, and .psf
- (they are a mixture of type 1 and type 3 fonts).
- .pxl TeX pixel bitmap font file (obsolete, replaced by .pk)
- .sfl LaserJet bitmapped softfont, landscape orientation
- .sfp LaserJet bitmapped softfont, portrait orientation
- .sfs LaserJet scalable softfont
- .tfm TeX font metric file
- .vf TeX virtual font which allows building of composite fonts (a character
- can be composed of any sequence of movements, characters (possibly
- from multiple fonts) rules and TeX specials)
- .vpl TeX 'property list' (human readable) format of a .vf
-
- Xref: bloom-picayune.mit.edu comp.fonts:6621 news.answers:4473
- Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!enterpoop.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!micro-heart-of-gold.mit.edu!wupost!uwm.edu!caen!nic.umass.edu!dime!dime.cs.umass.edu!walsh
- From: walsh@cs.umass.edu (Norman Walsh)
- Newsgroups: comp.fonts,news.answers
- Subject: comp.fonts FAQ.1b.General-Info
- Summary: This posting answers frequently asked questions about fonts.
- It addresses both general font questions and questions that
- are specific to a particular platform.
- Message-ID: <WALSH.92Dec7141333@ibis.cs.umass.edu>
- Date: 7 Dec 92 19:13:33 GMT
- Expires: 8 Jan 93 00:00:00 GMT
- References: <9212071410.WW57338@cs.umass.EDU>
- Sender: news@dime.cs.umass.edu
- Reply-To: walsh@cs.umass.edu (Norm Walsh)
- Followup-To: poster
- Organization: Dept of Comp and Info Sci, Univ of Mass (Amherst)
- Lines: 849
- Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.Edu
-
- Archive-name: fonts-faq/part02
- Version: 1.1.1.
-
- 6.3. Ligatures
-
- A ligature occurs where two or more letterforms are written or
- printed as a unit. Generally, ligatures replace characters that
- occur next to each other when they share common components.
- Ligatures are a subset of a more general class of figures called
- "contextual forms." Contextual forms describe the case where the
- particular shape of a letter depends on its context (surrounding
- letters, whether or not it's at the end of a line, etc.).
-
- One of the most common ligatures is "fi". Since the dot above a
- lowercase 'I' interferes with the loop on the lowercase 'F', when 'f'
- and 'i' are printed next to each other, they are combined into a
- single figure with the dot absorbed into the 'f'.
-
- An example of a more general contextual form is the greek lowercase
- sigma. When typesetting greek, the selection of which 'sigma' to use
- is determined by whether or not the letter occurs at the end of the
- word (i.e., the final position in the word).
-
- Amanda Walker <amanda@visix.com> provides the following discussion of
- ligatures:
-
- Ligatures were originally used by medieval scribes to conserve space
- and increase writing speed. A 14th century manuscript, for example,
- will include hundreds of ligatures (this is also where "accents" came
- from). Early typefaces used ligatures in order to emulate the
- appearance of hand-lettered manuscripts. As typesetting became more
- automated, most of these ligatures fell out of common use. It is
- only recently that computer based typesetting has encouraged people
- to start using them again (although 'fine art' printers have used
- them all along). Generally, ligatures work best in typefaces which
- are derived from calligraphic letterforms. Also useful are
- contextual forms, such as swash capitals, terminal characters, and so
- on.
-
- A good example of a computer typeface with a rich set of ligatures is
- Adobe Caslon (including Adobe Caslon Expert). It includes:
-
- Upper case, lower case, small caps, lining numerals, oldstyle
- numerals, vulgar fractions, superior & inferior numerals,
- swash italic caps, ornaments, long s, and the following ligatures:
-
- ff fi fl ffi ffl Rp ct st Sh Si Sl SS St (where S=long s)
-
- [Ed: Another common example is the Computer Modern Roman typeface that
- is provided with TeX. this family of fonts include the ff, fi, fl,
- ffi, and ffl ligatures which TeX automatically uses when it finds
- these letters juxtaposed in the text.]
-
- While there are a large number number of possible ligatures, generally
- only the most common ones are actually provided. In part, this is
- because the presence of too many alternate forms starts reducing
- legibility. A case in point is Luxeuil Miniscule, a highly-ligatured
- medieval document hand which is completely illegible to the untrained
- eye (and none too legible to the trained eye, either :)).
-
- Don Hosek offers the following insight into ligatures:
-
- Ligatures were used in lead type, originally in imitation of
- calligraphic actions (particularly in Greek which retained an
- excessive number of ligatures in printed material as late as the
- 19th century), but as typefaces developed, ligatures were retained
- to improve the appearance of certain letter combinations. In some
- cases, it was used to allow certain letter combinations to be more
- closely spaced (e.g., "To" or "Vo") and were referred to as
- "logotypes". In other cases, the designs of two letters were merged
- to keep the overall spacing of words uniform. Ligatures are provided
- in most contemporary fonts for exactly this reason.
-
- Liam Quim makes the following observations:
-
- The term ligature should only be used to describe joined letters in
- printing, not letters that overlap in manuscripts.
-
- Many (not all) accents came from the practice of using a tilde or
- other mark to represent an omitted letter, so that for example the
- Latin word `Dominus' would be written dns, with a tilde or bar over
- the n. This is an abbreviation, not a ligature.
-
- Most ligatures vanished during the 15th and 16th Centuries. It was
- simply too much work to use them, and it increased the price of book
- production too much.
-
- [Ed: there is no "complete" set of ligatures.]
-
- 6.4. Standard Laser Printer Fonts
-
- Postscript printers with 17 fonts have:
-
- Courier, Courier-Bold, Courier-BoldOblique, Courier-Oblique, Helvetica,
- Helvetica-Bold, Helvetica-BoldOblique, Helvetica-Narrow,
- Helvetica-Narrow-Bold, Helvetica-Narrow-BoldOblique,
- Helvetica-Narrow-Oblique, Helvetica-Oblique, Symbol, Times-Bold,
- Times-BoldItalic, Times-Italic, Times-Roman
-
- Postscript printers with 35 fonts have:
-
- All of the above, plus the following:
-
- ZapfChancery-MediumItalic, ZapfDingbats, AvantGarde-Book,
- AvantGarde-BookOblique, AvantGarde-Demi, AvantGarde-DemiOblique,
- Bookman-Demi, Bookman-DemiItalic, Bookman-Light, Bookman-LightItalic,
- NewCenturySchlbk-Bold, NewCenturySchlbk-BoldItalic,
- NewCenturySchlbk-Italic, NewCenturySchlbk-Roman, Palatino-Bold,
- Palatino-BoldItalic, Palatino-Italic, Palatino-Roman
-
- HP LaserJet printers (II, IIP)
-
- Courier 10, Courier 12, LinePrinter 16.66, ...
-
- HP LaserJet printers (III, IIIP)
-
- All of the above, plus the following:
-
- Scalable Times Roman and Scalable Univers using Compugraphic's
- Intellifont hinted font format.
-
- SPARCPrinters have the basic 35 font plus four scaled faces of each of
- Bembo, Gill Sans, Rockwell, Lucida, Lucida Bright, Sans and Typewriter,
- giving a total of 57 fonts, all in the F3 format.
-
- 6.5. Glossary
-
- [ I ripped this right out of the manual I wrote for Sfware. If you have
- comments, improvements, suggestions, please tell me... ]
-
- baseline
-
- The baseline is an imaginary line upon which each character rests.
- Characters that appear next to each other are (usually) lined up so
- that their baselines are on the same level. Some characters extend
- below the baseline (``g'' and ``j'', for example) but most rest on
- it.
-
- bitmap
-
- A bitmap is an array of dots. If you imagine a sheet of graph paper
- with some squares colored in, a bitmap is a compact way of
- representing to the computer which squares are colored and which are
- not.
-
- In a bitmapped font, every character is represented as a pattern of
- dots in a bitmap. The dots are so small (300 or more dots-per-inch,
- usually) that they are indistinguishable on the printed page.
-
- character
-
- (1) The smallest component of written language that has semantic value.
- Character refers to the abstract idea, rather than a specific shape (see
- also glyph), though in code tables some form of visual representation is
- essential for the reader's understanding. (2) The basic unit of
- encoding for the Unicode character encoding, 16 bits of information.
- (3) Synonym for "code element". (4) The English name for the
- ideographic written elements of Chinese origin.
-
- download
-