NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/comp/fonts/3431

Text File | 1992-11-20 | 1.9 KB | 39 lines

Newsgroups: comp.fonts
Path: sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!cis.ohio-state.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!csn!raven!rcd
From: [e-mail] (Dick Dunn)
Subject: Re: proportional/narrow Courier ?
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Summary: what's really needed?  typewriter font?
Organization: eklektix - Boulder, Colorado
References: <[e-mail]>
Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 08:04:23 GMT
Lines: 27

[e-mail] (Marcel Wijkstra (AIO)) writes:
>I am looking for a proportional Courier (or Courier-lookalike) font, if
>such a beast exists. If it does not, I will also be satisfied with a
>narrow Courier font.

You'd better tell us more of what you need, because "proportional Courier"
is a contradiction:  Courier is designed to be a fixed-width font.  You can
see this in characteristics like the very wide serifs on narrow characters,
which let them occupy more of the standard character width.

If you're interested in a "typewriter" look, but proportional, try one like
"American Typewriter".  (Yes, I see the .nl at the end of the reply
address; sorry.:-)  If you're looking for somewhat similar feel, as far as
strokes of uniform weight and serifs as thick as the main strokes, look for
a slab-serif "Egyptian" design (Memphis or the like).  Of course, neither
of these are suited for setting large blocks of text.

If you want something like Courier but just narrower, you may be able to
re-scale Courier--for example, in PostScript, instead of just scalefont use
makefont with a matrix that scales larger vertically than horizontally.
(The traditional scaling of a fixed-pitch font gives a character spacing
of 0.6 the point size--thus 10 pt is 12 pitch and 12 pt is 10 pitch, which
are convenient but often a bit wide in appearance, and especially so with a
squat font like Courier.)
--
Dick Dunn    [e-mail]   -or-   raven!rcd    Boulder, Colorado
    ...Simpler is better.