Kragen Javier Sitaker wrote:
I wonder where they [the XGP fonts] came from?
I read a story somwhere, but I forgot the details and where I found it.
It was something like getting a font catalog from a major foundry and digitizing it by hand.
People also made their own; the AST file format is just a text file with pixel data, and on ITS there's FED (font "editor") to display a font on
the 340 or a Knight TV. I think SAIL had something else, certaily so
when TeX and Metafont were developed.
"The Last Whole XGP Font Catalog" (play on "Last Whole Earth Catalog")
has a lot to say about the XGP.
Lars Brinkhoff <lars.spam@nocrew.org> writes:
Kragen Javier Sitaker wrote:
I wonder where they [the XGP fonts] came from?
I read a story somwhere, but I forgot the details and where I found it.
It was something like getting a font catalog from a major foundry and
digitizing it by hand.
People also made their own; the AST file format is just a text file with
pixel data, and on ITS there's FED (font "editor") to display a font on
the 340 or a Knight TV. I think SAIL had something else, certaily so
when TeX and Metafont were developed.
"The Last Whole XGP Font Catalog" (play on "Last Whole Earth Catalog")
has a lot to say about the XGP.
I was reading Butler LampsonrCOs 01988 retrospective on the Alto today <https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/61975.66921> and he answered this question:
: The first imager, written by Peter Deutsch, drove the Xerox Graphics
: Printer. This machine is slow (five pages/minute) and low resolution
: (200 dots/inch); it is also asynchronous, so the imager can take as
: long as it likes to generate each line of the raster. Only crude
: imaging software was developed for it, together with a few fonts.
: Raster fonts were unheard of at the time, except in 5 |u 7 and 7 |u 9
: resolution for terminals, or at very high resolution for expensive
: photo-typesetters. The XGP fonts were developed entirely manually,
: using an editor that allows the operator to turn individual dots in
: the roughly 20 |u 20 matrix on and off. They had to be new designs,
: since it is impractical to faithfully copy a printerrCOs font at such
: low resolution. These XGP fonts were later widely used in
: universities.
On 9/28/26 06:44, Kragen Javier Sitaker wrote:
Lars Brinkhoff <lars.spam@nocrew.org> writes:
Kragen Javier Sitaker wrote:
I wonder where they [the XGP fonts] came from?
I read a story somwhere, but I forgot the details and where I found it.
It was something like getting a font catalog from a major foundry and
digitizing it by hand.
People also made their own; the AST file format is just a text file with >>> pixel data, and on ITS there's FED (font "editor") to display a font on
the 340 or a Knight TV.-a I think SAIL had something else, certaily so
when TeX and Metafont were developed.
"The Last Whole XGP Font Catalog" (play on "Last Whole Earth Catalog")
has a lot to say about the XGP.
I was reading Butler LampsonrCOs 01988 retrospective on the Alto today
<https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/61975.66921> and he answered this
question:
: The first imager, written by Peter Deutsch, drove the Xerox Graphics
: Printer.-a This machine is slow (five pages/minute) and low resolution
: (200 dots/inch); it is also asynchronous, so the imager can take as
: long as it likes to generate each line of the raster. Only crude
: imaging software was developed for it, together with a few fonts.
: Raster fonts were unheard of at the time, except in 5 |u 7 and 7 |u 9
: resolution for terminals, or at very high resolution for expensive
: photo-typesetters. The XGP fonts were developed entirely manually,
: using an editor that allows the operator to turn individual dots in
: the roughly 20 |u 20 matrix on and off. They had to be new designs,
: since it is impractical to faithfully copy a printerrCOs font at such
: low resolution. These XGP fonts were later widely used in
: universities.
The SAIL fonts were, at one point, available from one of the PC
shareware sites. I imagine they are still kicking around somewhere. I
played with them at one time, I think the major obstacle is that they
were (IIRC) 200dpi.
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