From: Hans Aberg (haberg@math.su.se)
Date: Wed Nov 26 2008 - 03:22:28 CST
On 26 Nov 2008, at 01:43, Christopher Fynn wrote:
>> So electronic typesetting influenced the design of typefaces
>> before it even existed?
>
> Phototypesetting, which is not 'traditional', goes back at least to
> the early 1950s. Some phototypesetting system used fonts on strips
> of film a film matrix or on disks, but later other systems exposed
> the photographic paper with projections from a CRT using
> 'electronic' fonts.
The typesetting principle changed significantly when electronic
typesetting became generally available, as on personal computers, and
the typesetting is no linger done by a core of professional
typesetters. This starts somewhere in the late 1980s, I would think,
mainly in the form of word-processors that cannot do kerning. With
such personal computers, it also becomes possibly for everyone to
design their own fonts, by people who do not know the traditional
design rules.
This article says although phototypesetting was developed in the
1940s, it first became popular in the 1970s. So it is not likely to
have affected general font design much before that, and because of
that social factor mentioned above, not even then.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phototypesetting
> Some of the best zoom lens designs were first developed for varying
> the point size of type in phototypesetting systems
Although normal sizes and up can be scaled proportionally, small
point sizes may need special designs, for example, being a bit wider.
Hans
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