Xref: utzoo comp.fonts:2124 comp.lang.postscript:8052 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!dimacs.rutgers.edu!rutgers!elbereth.rutgers.edu!khazad-dum.rutgers.edu!gasior From: gasior@khazad-dum.rutgers.edu (Eric Gasior) Newsgroups: comp.fonts,comp.lang.postscript Subject: Re: Why is Courier ugly? Message-ID: Date: 22 Mar 91 21:01:30 GMT References: <1991Mar15.225317.13890@ico.isc.com> <27E6EA46.1044@telly.on.ca> Followup-To: comp.fonts Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J. Lines: 32 evan@telly.on.ca (Evan Leibovitch) writes: >In article <1991Mar15.225317.13890@ico.isc.com> rcd@ico.isc.com (Dick Dunn) writes: >First, as you suggest, the constrait of being designed for fixed-pitch >is a good cause of the ugliness in itself. Propotionally spaced type Wrong. My local printer is an old daisy wheel, and some of the monospaced print wheels are rather pleasant. Prestige Elite and Prestige Pica hold up well over 10 pages. My current wheel (I can't remember the typestyle) is also decent, even if the letters are a little small for 12 cpi. ... >The biggest problem, though, is that it's so ubiquitous - It's the only >font you can produce on just about every typewriter, daisy wheel, LQ dot >matrix and laser printer ever built. It's too common. In client sites >where I've upgraded their printers with Postscript cartidges, the main >oohs and aahs come not from fancy graphics, shading, or scalable >fonts... it's the ability to do business letters in a proportional font >without the bother of downloaded fonts. Ubiquitous? I've never seen a courrier wheel for my printer, and the Selectrics I've seen generally don't have it either. Not all monospaced fonts look alike, or as bad as courrier. I wonder why HP chose it. Courrier has strange serifs. It's the only monospaced font that I know where the bases of the 'i' and 'l' run for most of the character's allotted space. (BTW The Laser Writer's courrier is different from HP's.) EDG