Subject: Freeware version of Letter Gothic monospaced font
This Plain (Roman) version of the classic font Letter Gothic, a *freeware* incarnation called "LetterGothic-EGG," is intended to serve one purpose: To print text, such as from online sessions, that originally has been created on fixed-pitch (monospaced), Elite (12 characters per inch) platforms or devices, such as many Unix, IBM or Atari computers; and have the resulting output look more or less as though it had been produced on an IBM Selectric(R) typewriter. Period.
LetterGothic-EGG's Plain (and only) face is considerably bolder than the Adobe equivalent, which gives it more "color" - meaning, in part, that it looks "blacker" - on the printed page. (In fact, one commercial version of Letter Gothic [Roman] looks rather pale beside LetterGothic-EGG.)
Thus, LetterGothic-EGG is *not* a direct substitute for Adobe's Letter Gothic, although this may be more of a virtue than a defect. In contrast to the former, 12-point LetterGothic-EGG tracks at almost precisely 12 cpi (Elite), with 66 lines per 11-inch page, thus mimicking the Selectric fairly well.
As credited fully in the accompanying file, "LetterGothic-EGG_Summary.txt," many thanks go to Larry Fish of EG&G Idaho, Inc., for arranging to make his company's original-issue "EGGFont" available for *free* (but not-for-profit) public distribution. (Full copyright details are included in the file, "LetterGothic-EGG_Rel_Notes.txt.")
This editor's modifications to the original font consist of correcting some shape and dimensional non-conformities in the character outlines (a much bigger job than anticipated); hand-tuning the provided two bitmaps and adding third and fourth oness (a *horrendously* bigger job than expected, thanks mainly to limitations in the current Fontographer's bitmap editing capabilities); adding some 90 European "composite" characters for compatibility with non-US Selectric typewriters (another major task that was not planned *at all* in the beginning); and adding TrueType and cross-platform versions of the font (there still are likely to be "surprises" lurking in the latter). The character spacing and leading (line-spacing) basically are left alone.
A caveat: Apparently due to an obscure "feature" in Fontographer, characters in this version of Letter Gothic sit some two pixels higher, relative to the baseline (at 300 dpi), than do characters in such Apple standards as Times and Palatino. Thus LetterGothic-EGG does not mix terribly well, on the same line, with other fonts. (If Altsys corrects this behavior in their program, a new version of the font will be uploaded.) For a similar reason (it would seem), the Mac PostScript font prints at a *slightly* heavier weight than does the TrueType incarnation, with the latter's hinting looking a bit inferior compared to the former's.
Also for similar, nebulous reasons, a few composite (mainly European) characters print with excessive weight, relative to the rest of the font, on the LaserWriter IINT. If this behavior is evident on other printers as well, please report it to the undersigned.
Macintosh PostScript (Type 1) and TrueType versions are included. NeXTStep PostScript and Windows Truetype versions *eventually* will be available at archives specific to those platforms.
Enjoy.
Traci J. Ingram
tingram@services.dese.state.mo.us | or | 101-8673@MCIMail.com
