Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2001 02:26:59 -0500 From: Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> To: Jamie Bowden <ragnar@sysabend.org> Cc: James Howard <howardjp@well.com>, Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org>, Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org>, Rahul Siddharthan <rsidd@physics.iisc.ernet.in>, Joseph Mallett <jmallett@newgold.net>, chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: banner(6) Message-ID: <15070.37699.876831.515060@guru.mired.org> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.10.10104181512060.71134-100000@moo.sysabend.org> References: <Pine.GSO.4.21.0104180641460.517-100000@well.com> <Pine.BSF.4.10.10104181512060.71134-100000@moo.sysabend.org>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Jamie Bowden <ragnar@sysabend.org> types: > On Wed, 18 Apr 2001, James Howard wrote: > :On Wed, 18 Apr 2001, Brett Glass wrote: > :> That's because Adobe misuses the term. I come from a family which > :> includes several generations of typesetters and type designers. > :> The correct meaning of the word "font" has existed for hundreds > :> of years, and abuse by one company can't change it. > :Everything Brett has said so far is confirmed by The Chicago Manual of > :Style. Just a note. > My grandfather is a printer. Has a Heidelberg in his garage. I don't > need to steenkin' Chicago Manual of Style to confirm what Brett's saying. > When he talks about a font, he's talking about something specific like > Helvetica 12pt. medium. So what did he call a collection of programs that are used to render a typeface? *That's* the question at hand. Quoting the comp.fonts faq (my references are in storage), question 1.12: A typeface is a set of lettters, numbers, and other symbolic characters that are related by repeating design elements [...]. A font is a computer file or program used to represent or create the typeface. That's fairly close to how Brett defined fonts (a definition I agree with): a font is a rendering of a typeface. The FAQ is specific to fonts on the computer, and basically defines a font as a rendering of a typeface as a computer file or program. Classicaly, when you bought a font you got a rendering of a typeface at a specific size and weight from a specific foundry designed to be set on a specific kind of machine. When you buy a non-scalable computer font, that's exactly what you get, except the machine they are set on is now software. Scalable computer fonts are the same, except they are no longer tied to a specific size. They still come in a specific weight (ok, I'm ignoring multiple master fonts) from a specific foundry designed to be set with a specific kind of program. Adobe Garamond rendered in PostScript is clearly the same typeface as Adobe Garamond rendered in TrueType - and equally clearly the two are *not* the same thing. As such, "scalable font" is a perfectly reasonable name for the things. Yes, the common habit of dropping the adjective "scalable" breaks the idea that fonts are a specific size. There are *lots* of examples of things that are available with a technological twist that started life with an adjective that was later dropped, in the process breaking an assumption that some property was fundamental to the thing in question. Dropping "digital" breaks the assumption that watches have hands. Dropping "night" breaks the assumption that ball games are played during the day. And so on. The same can be said about "scalable typefaces" - dropping the adjective just breaks the assumption that different renderings of the same typeface are still examples of that typeface. I think that's a more fundamental assumption. Further, this adjective begs the question - why are the non-scalable versions of these things called "fonts" instead of typefaces? With all deference due to the old practitioners of the field, I think the font foundry that created the name "scalable fonts" chose the write noun to provide with a new adjective. <mike -- Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/ Independent WWW/Perforce/FreeBSD/Unix consultant, email for more information. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?15070.37699.876831.515060>