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From: rcd@ico.isc.com (Dick Dunn)
Newsgroups: comp.fonts,comp.lang.postscript
Subject: Why is Courier ugly?
Message-ID: <1991Mar15.225317.13890@ico.isc.com>
Date: 15 Mar 91 22:53:17 GMT
Organization: Interactive Systems Corporation, Boulder, CO
Lines: 22

OK, I grant that the subject line will hit many of you as a world-class
stupid question.  Let me explain.

It is well known (regardless of whether it's true) that Courier is one of
the ugliest fonts in the history of Western Civilization (such as it is).
In particular, it's regarded as ugly even within the limited context of
being a fixed-pitch font, which is a tough constraint on font design.

What I'd like to get is some consensus of _why_ it's considered so ugly.
What specific features offend the most, or cause the most problem in
reading it?  What would you fix, again within the constraint of fixed
width?  (I have my own list; I want to collect other folks' reasons
into something more global.)

If you just have some short reasons and would rather email, I'll collect
them and summarize.

(Oh...and if you think Courier _isn't_ ugly, that's OK...please speak up; we
could use a laugh.:-)
-- 
Dick Dunn     rcd@ico.isc.com -or- ico!rcd       Boulder, CO   (303)449-2870
   ...Relax...don't worry...have a homebrew.