Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!adobe!lemon From: lemon@adobe.com (David Lemon) Newsgroups: comp.fonts Subject: Re: Adobe Courier versions Keywords: Courier, revisions Message-ID: <8860@adobe.UUCP> Date: 6 Dec 90 03:14:41 GMT References: <}X}^8==@rpi.edu> <8809@adobe.UUCP> Sender: news@adobe.COM Reply-To: lemon@adobe.COM (David Lemon) Organization: Adobe Systems Incorporated, Mountain View Lines: 30 I's like to try to clear up some of the questions that have been floating around regarding Courier. So: * The Courier in most existing printers is a stroked font with rounded endcaps. It was stroked because 8 years ago ROM was worth more than gold, and a stroked font uses much less memory (half the path elements). The original version also used one set of paths for all four fonts, for further memory savings. * When the need for a Type 1 version outweighed the (addictive) memory savings, Sumner Stone gave us the go-ahead to use a more accurate design, rather than the outline clone used by the clonemakers. This leads to all the questions you've seen to date. Such questions are inevitable, but the improvement seemed worth it. * Newer printers and the ATM package include a revised version of Courier (anything with version number 2.00x). As has been mentioned, there are multiple designs of this face, but Adobe's newer version is fairly well in line with the original IBM design. (Personally, I prefer Frutiger's redesign.) * Although the character bounding boxes are necessarily different in the new version, Adobe has an *adamant* policy of not altering character widths in any revised fonts, so line breaks will not be affected. I hope we can now move on to more important matters... - David Lemon Type Nerd Disclaimer: I wasn't here 8 years ago, and I've been known to have opinions. Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com