> I am looking for a shareware or freeware version of Letter Gothic (or
> something similar), which is the fixed-pitch face found on many IBM
> Selectric typewriters. Type 1 is preferred, TrueType is OK.
>
> I need a 12-point type that spaces at 12-pitch (Elite) *monospaced*. A
> scan of the archives and summaries has yielded no likely suspects.
Since this item generated more interest than I had anticipated, I will summarize while hoping that this is not a waste of "bandwidth":
Byron C Mayes <bcmayes@admin.udl.udel.edu> and Christian F. Buser <cbuser@ezinfo.vmsmail.ethz.ch> have already posted their responses to Info-Mac, so I'll only repeat that both recommended the "Adobe TypeSet Value Pack" (version 3.6), and Mr. Mayes also suggested the KeyFonts collection, which includes a clone of the monospaced "Orator" called "Oracle." (See Don Shupe's comment below, however.)
Bill Rausch <t9365@cis13.nfuel.com> (or <wnr@fred.nfuel.com>) said, "I don't know of any free ones, but I got mine as part of a 50 font package for $50 from KeyFonts? - you might try MacWarehouse, etc."
Don Shupe <dshupe@cwu.edu> (in a series of notes) wrote: "I've been trying to find a True-Type font that will look good and keep spacing of tables and downloads.... I'm not even that crazy about Letter Gothic as it looks lousy on the screen [see footnote below]. With all the activity on internet, it seems like more people, especially hackers, would be interested in a good mono-spaced font. Do they know something we don't?" [Do they??]
Later, he says, ...I just checked out Oracle/Orator font. Its all caps (big and small - but caps nevertheless). Ugly. Not what I wanted."
Thanks especially to the very gracious Larry Fish <lwf@inel.gov>, of EG&G Idaho, for obtaining permission to post to the archives their version of Letter Gothic, which they call EGGFONT. He explains how they came to develop their own in-house variant of this typeface:
Quoting Larry Fish (from more than one e-mail message):----------------
"These fonts were developed by the PC support group in EG&G Idaho to allow us Mac users to print documents in the (until recently, company standard) Letter Gothic, font. This arose from the desire to make documents look like the old typewriter font. The old IBM PC's with Multimate used a Letter Gothic font from Hewlett Packard that printed on HP Laserjets. Now, The PC users have Word Perfect with proportional fonts, and the publications department uses Times and Helvetica for reports.
"These files were made freely available to us. I was told as long as they're not sold, they can be considered freeware.... I don't think there's any problem with crediting EG&G Idaho with the font, but don't imply any off-site support.... However, I shall forward any improvements that you may perform to our PC support group.[1] Several people in my group still use it."
"Again, I'm glad that I could help you, as I've received lots of help from the net."
[1]Since a few of the characters (such as # and $) have some overlapping elements, a practice considered "illegal" in PostScript, I will attempt to shine the font up a bit, generate both PostScript and TrueType versions, and then post them to the archives (using a name like "Let Goth EGG," hoping to be descriptive, safe as to copyright, and acknowledging of its source - all at the same time).
Please be patient, however, as these things always take more time than one can ever imagine in the planning stages.
BTW, this version of Letter Gothic looks quite decent on the screen, IMO, and I like the printed output from online sessions *much* better than any documents using either Monaco (argh!) or my custom "fat" Courier.
Traci J. Ingram
tingram@services.dese.state.mo.us | or | 101-8673@MCIMail.com
**********************
Subsequent to the above summary, Steve Strassmann <straz@cambridge.apple.com> wrote:
I'm very intrigued by your posting about Letter Gothic.
I purchased Letter Gothic from Adobe Type-on-call, and aside from some quibbles and the expense, am pretty happy with it. My quibbles include:
1) The bold font is not nearly dark enough, it's practically the
same as the regular font.
2) The # character has a weird missing whitespace in the middle.
3) The = character is so tiny, the lines are much too close together.
4) The - character is too tiny (short) as well.
5) The * should have 6 points, not 5, and not be superscripted.
These days, * appears in source code as a wildcard, multiplication,
or *emphasis* more often than as a footnote, and if someone wants
a superscript, they can always get it from their word processor.
I tried to find out the copyright status. Adobe's type-on-call CD and the literature has extensive fine print, telling all the copyright ownerships on all the (over 300) fonts on the disk. But Letter Gothic is not mentioned! I called Adobe, and nobody
there could confirm or deny that Adobe or anyone else for that matter owns a trademark on the name or the font itself.
Please pass this along to Larry Fish, and please keep me posted if and when the EG&G version gets released. I'd love to try it out.
