Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
Path: utzoo!sq!lee
From: lee@sq.sq.com (Liam R. E. Quin)
Subject: Re: Type sample page ideas
Message-ID: <1991Jan4.182115.27200@sq.sq.com>
Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, Canada
References: <134400018@cdp>
Date: Fri, 4 Jan 91 18:21:15 GMT
Lines: 31

jwhiting@cdp.UUCP writes:
>I'm putting together some type sample pages.  [...]
>phrases that use the whole alphabet

Not sure what you're doing this for, but the important thing about font
samples is usually that they help people to select a font for `normal' text
uses, so a paragraph of text in a couple of sizes, or in a normal book size
of between 10 and 12 point, is essential.

I once used the following sentence (that I probably made up at the time):

``Excellence in Typography
  is achieved at the expense of labour and artistry;
  for who but an artist would be fool enough to become
  a typographer?''

The phrase `Excellence in Typography' is favoured by type designers because
it contains some important (i.e. both frequent and visible) letter
combinations.


It might be helpful to show various \&\fBweights\fP and \&\fIstyles\fP set
on the same baseline (if you'll excuse the troff).  If it's for beginners or
the dreaded `dtp neophytes' :-), you might like to show some combinations
of type, so as to discourage mixing Helvetica, Times Roman and Courier all
in the same text, amongst other common errors.

Lee

-- 
Liam R. E. Quin,  lee@sq.com, SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, +1 (416) 963-8337