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From: [e-mail] (Norman Walsh)
Newsgroups: comp.fonts,news.answers
Subject: comp.fonts FAQ: part 2 of 5
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: <[e-mail]>
Date: 2 Oct 92 18:05:38 GMT
Expires: 6 Nov 92 00:00:00 GMT
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--- [cut here] --- FAQ for comp.fonts: section 1, part 2 of 2 ---
      be some way to map characters into positions within the font.  The
      symbol set serves this purpose.  It identifies the ``map'' used to
      position characters within the font.

   typeface

      A typeface is a collection of symbols with a similar style.  Times
      Roman and Helvetica are typefaces.  Contrast with font.

      More technically:

      The features by which a character's design is recognized, hence the word
      face.  Within the Latin language group of graphic shapes are the
      following forms: Uncial, Blackletter, Serif, Sans Serif, Scripts, and
      Decorative.  Each form characterizes one or more designs.  Example:
      Serif form contains four designs called Old Style, Transitional, Modern,
      and Slab Serif designs.  The typeface called Bodoni is a Modern design,
      while Times Roman is a Transitional design.

7. Bibliography / Other Resources

  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
  <[e-mail]> 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

7.1. The Bibliography

  _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.

  _Typographical attitude!_, 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.

  _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 <[e-mail]>

  _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 <[e-mail]>

  _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 <[e-mail]>

  _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 <[e-mail]>

  _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 <[e-mail]>

  _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 <[e-mail]>

  _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. Quim <[e-mail]>


  _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 <[e-mail]>

  _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 <[e-mail]>

7.2.1. Unicode

  _Unicode Consortium; The Unicode Standard, volumes 1 and 2, Worldwide
  Character Encoding_, Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., Xerox Corp.;
  Character Code Standard.

7.2.2. TrueType

 George Moore <[e-mail]> announces the following information
 regarding TrueType fonts:

   *-[Quote]-----------------------------------------------------------*

   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.uu.net (137.39.1.9) in the /vendor/microsoft/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.uu.net:

   1. ttspec1.zip
      ttspec2.zip
      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.

8. 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.

8.1. 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.

8.2.  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.

9. 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 <[e-mail]>
    Tim Bradshaw <[e-mail]>
    Terry Carroll <[e-mail]>
    Ari Davidow <[e-mail]>
    Pat Farrell <[e-mail]>
    Rick Heli <?>
    Gary <[e-mail]>
    Berthold K.P. Horn <[e-mail]>
    Don Hosek <[e-mail]>
    Yossi Gil <[e-mail]>
    David Mandl <[e-mail]>
    Kate McDonnell <?>
    George Moore <[e-mail]>
    Robert Morris <[e-mail]>
    Stephen Peters <[e-mail]>
    Jim Reese <[e-mail]>
    Liam R.E. Quim <[e-mail]>
    Henry Schneiker <?>
    Cameron Smith <[e-mail]>
    Amanda Walker <[e-mail]>

10. A Brief Introduction to Typography

    Space, time, and bandwidth are too limiting to provide a complete
    introduction to typography in this space.  I'd be very willing to make
    one available for anonymous ftp, if you want to write one, but I'm not
    going to write it--I have neither the time nor the expertise.  However,
    the following description of Times, Helvetica, and Courier will suffice
    for a start.  For more information, several books on typography are
    listed in the bibliography.

    Laurence Penney <[e-mail]> offers the following
    description of Times, Helvetica, and Courier:

    Times is a typeface designed in the 1930s for the Times newspaper in
    London and is now used widely in books, magazines and DTP. Its design
    is based on the typographical principles evolved since Roman times
    (upper case) and the 16th century (lower case). It is called a
    TRANSITIONAL typeface, after the typefaces of the 17th century which it
    resembles.  Like all typefaces designed for typesetting large
    quantities of text, it is proportionally spaced: the i takes about a
    third the width of an M.  Personally I don't like Times too much and
    prefer the more elegant Garamond and Baskerville, but these will
    probably cost you money...  Note: The Transitionals came after the Old
    Styles (like Garamond) and before the Moderns (like Bodoni).

    Helvetica is an example of a SANS-SERIF typeface. These first appeared
    in the late 19th century in Germany and flourished in the 1920s and
    30s, when they were regarded as the future of typography.  It's more a
    geometric design than the humanist design of Gill Sans, but less
    geometric than Avant Garde and Futura. To my mind it lacks elegance,
    and Adrian Frutiger's Univers shows how this kind of typeface should be
    done. (Just compare the B, R, Q, a, g of Univers and Helvetica to see
    what I mean -- and don't you just love Univers's superbly interpreted
    ampersand ?!) Helvetica is one of the few fonts that is improved by its
    BOLD version.

    Another interesting approach to sans-serif is Optima, by Hermann Zapf,
    which keeps the stroke-weight variations which sans-serifs usually
    reject. Use sans-serif fonts for the same applications as Times, above,
    but where you're less concerned with elegance, and more with a
    functional appearance - they're generally reckoned to be slightly less
    legible than good serifed fonts. They're also very suitable for
    display work.

    Courier is a typeface derived from typewriter styles. It should ONLY be
    used when you want to simulate this effect (e.g. when writing letters
    Courier usually appears "friendlier" than Times). Like all typewriter
    fonts, it is MONOSPACED (characters all have the same width) and is
    thus suitable for typesetting computer programs. However there are
    nicer looking monospace fonts than Courier (which has oversize serifs),
    that still remain distinct from the text fonts like Times and
    Helvetica. A good one is OCR-B, designed by Frutiger. Note that
    monospaced fonts are less economical on space than proportional fonts.

    [ed: Following the original posting of this message, Laurence Penny and
    Jason Kim <[e-mail]> discussed the issue privately.  The
    following summary of their discussion may serve to clarify some of the
    more subtle points.  My thanks to Laurence and Jason for allowing me to
    include this in the FAQ.]

    ===

    LP-1> The Transitionals came after the Old Styles (like Garamond) and
    before the Moderns (like Bodoni).

    JK> Not necessarily true!  Ideologically, yes, but not chronologically.
    I believe, for example, that Bodoni predates New Century Schoolbook or
    some such typeface.

    LP-2> What I meant by "X came after Y" was "the first examples of X
    appeared after the first examples of Y" -- it's called precis. Some
    people still make steam trains, but you can still say "Steam engines
    came before diesels." This is chronological, not ideological in my
    book.

    ===

    LP-1> Another interesting approach to sans-serif is Optima, by Hermann
    Zapf, which keeps the stroke-weight variations which sans-serifs
    usually reject. Use sans-serif fonts for the same applications as
    Times, above, but where you're less concerned with elegance, and more
    with a functional appearance - they're generally reckoned to be
    slightly less legible than good seriffed fonts. They're also very
    suitable for display work.

    JK> Slightly? I have several textbooks typeset by utter fools and they
    are a pain in the ass (and eyes) to read! Please don't encourage anyone
    to use Optima (or any sans serif fonts for that matter) "for the same
    applications as Times," which, need I remind you, was designed for
    *newspaper* work!!

    LP-2> OK, maybe I was a little over-generous to Univers, Helvetica,
    etc., but I think variation is extremely important in typography. Have
    you ever read the British magazine "CAR" ? That uses Helvetica light (I
    think) in a very legible and attractive way, IMO.  I agree, though,
    Optima is crappy for text, but it's a very valuable experiment and
    looks beautiful when printed in high quality for titling, etc. And yes,
    *books* in Helvtica are generally awful.

    ===

    JK> Serifs have been scientifically shown to be a *lot* easier on the
    reader, as they guide the eyes along the lines.

    LP-2> In all tests I've seen the serifs have always won the day, but
    only with certain seriffed fonts, and fonts like Univers aren't far
    behind. The "tracking" advantage for serif fonts is reduced when you're
    talking about narrow newspaper/magazine columns.

    ===

    JK> You wrote a pretty short and partial history of type. Why ignore
    the roots of type (blackletter) as well as the climax (moderns--give an
    explanation) and subsequent 'post-modern' revivals?

    LP-2> I was just talking about the place the 3 most common DTP types
    hold in the history of typography, and a few associated pitfalls. It
    wasn't meant as a "history of typography" at all. Please feel free to
    provide such a history yourself.

    JK> I think any short list of specific faces is incomplete without
    mention of Palatino, the most popular Old Style revival in existence.

    LP-2> Do you? To my mind Palatino is grossly overused. You must agree
    it looks bad for dense text. It isn't a proper "oldstyle revival" at
    all, more of a "calligraphic interpretation" of it. Zapf designed it as
    a display face, and wasn't too concerned about lining up the serifs
    (check out the "t"). And it just *has* to be printed on 1200dpi devices
    (at least) to look good in small sizes. OK then, maybe a short list is
    incomplete without a caution NOT to use Palatino...

    JK> Also, if this is meant to be a "quick history/user guide for those
    fairly new to using fonts on desktop publishing systems," then I would
    recommend more directions about the proper uses of certain faces (e.g.,
    Goudy for shaped text, Peignot for display *only*) and styles (e.g.,
    italics for editorial comments, all-caps for basically nothing).

    LP-2> Okay, okay. I was only sharing a few ideas, not trying to write a
    book. Surely you agree that the 3 typefaces I chose are by far the most
    commonly used and abused these days? I don't think a discussion of
    Goudy or Peignot fits in very well here, unless we're hoping to make a
    very wide-ranging FAQL. Regarding styles: first, italics are used
    principally for *emphasis* (rather than bold in running text); second,
    all good books have a few small caps here and there, don't they? - all
    mine do...

    JK> Sorry if I come across as critical. I think the idea of making a
    FAQL is a good one, as is your effort. We just have to make sure it
    doesn't give any newbies the wrong impressions and further perpetuate
    the typographical morass we're facing today.

    LP-2> Sorry if I come across as defensive, but I stand by what I said
    and object to the suggestion that I am "perpetuating the typographical
    morass". (I don't know if you really intended this - apologies if you
    didn't.)

-- END OF PART I --
--- [cut here] --- FAQ for comp.fonts: section 1, part 2 of 2 ---