Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!sun-barr!olivea!mintaka!bloom-beacon!eru!hagbard!sunic!liuida!prosys!ath
From: ath@prosys.se (Anders Thulin)
Newsgroups: comp.fonts
Subject: Italics and descenders - a query to font archeologists
Message-ID: <655@riegel.prosys.se>
Date: 26 Oct 90 07:17:35 GMT
Organization: TeleSoft AB, Linkoping, Sweden
Lines: 19
References:

For some reason type designers began to create quite restricted type
faces. I'm thinking of faces with italics as wide as the 'roman',
and with stunted descenders instead of full. I have a notion that this
began with the introduction of the Linotype machine, although I'm not
entirely certain.

With the new methods of typesetting (optical and digital typesetting)
these restrictions seem strange and somewhat oldfashioned.

So, why are so few new type faces 'old' - why don't the latest type
faces on the market use narrow italics and full descenders?

Only inertia? Or are there other reasons?



-- 
Anders Thulin       ath@prosys.se   {uunet,mcsun}!sunic!prosys!ath
Telesoft Europe AB, Teknikringen 2B, S-583 30 Linkoping, Sweden