On 11/16/05 5:42 PM, "marbux"
On 11/16/05, Felix Miata
wrote: Traditionally,
before scalable fonts came into wide use for screen media, screen fonts typically were available in limited sizes, commonly skipping odd sizes above 10pt (some common bitmap fonts still do that). The Windows 98 system menu font comes/came on only 3 pt sizes. 0-9, 10-11, & 12-up. 10pt is one such size smaller than the screen default 12pt (16px), about which: http://members.ij.net/mrmazda/auth/defaultsize.html:note1
I'd guess that it was a carryover from the hot type printing days. Movable type and Linotype/Intertype mats for typesetting only came in odd and even type sizes up to 12 pt., then even number sizes only after that. Some half sizes were available for text; e.g., "agate" was another name for 5-1/2 point, commonly used in classified ads set on a 6-pt base. 8-1/2 and 9-1/2 point were fairly common for newspaper and book text.
I still remember the first time I laid my hands on the Addressograph/Multigraph Co.'s first phototypesetter. It allowed odd and even typesizes up to about 36 point as I recall. I was shocked, although it turned out to be pretty handy for filling column-width in display lines. It was also the first phototypesetter I saw that had a CRT rather than a 16 or 32-character LED for the display, but this was before WYSIWYG. The deluxe version came with an 8-inch floppy drive rather than a paper tape puncher/reader. Most of the text typesetting in high production plants was still being done without any monitor at all. If you worked in a newspaper, you had to be able to read 6-level Teletypesetter (TTS) code on punched paper tape (amongst other joys) to earn your journeyman papers back then.
But I digress.
Marbux
In a previous life I ran a Comugraphic Editwriter 7500- You could use a total of 8 fonts with the extended version...4 on each card/film strip. Any time you changed fonts, you changed cards and filmstrips. Ours started out @ 6 pt, and ended @ 72 pt. (something like 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 18, 24, 30, 36, 42, 48, 56, 60, 72) Talk about hog heaven! Super hi-tech! Then to the darkroom...45 sec exposure @ f22, 2:45 in developer @ 68°, 5 minutes in fixer... Before that it was the California Job case layout- http://homepage.mac.com/gasjr4wd/fonts/california_typecase.jpg I still remember setting type by hand. Then there was the summer I ram a lino...the hottype smell (liquid lead, ummm) is still is in my skin. (and yea that sh*t burned!) Oh, and for those of you who STILL put a double space between sentences, that was a typewriter thing. You can stop now. I bet your typing teacher didn't tell you why you should do that... (hint- "en" space, "em" space) Leading is called that for a reason... Old terms...riglet, furniture, composing stick, stone, chase... Old knowledge...J and U were added to the alphabet later. If you guys know how far 'puters and printing have come, you wouldn't bitch about what GUI to run... You would just shout up and run with what you have. ;) -- Thanks, George I don't give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way. Mark Twain