Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!mit-eddie!bu-cs!mirror!rayssd!raybed2!linus!mbunix!ted
From: ted@mbunix.mitre.org (Edward J. Ede)
Newsgroups: comp.fonts
Subject: Italic & Oblique
Message-ID: <43873@linus.UUCP>
Date: 25 Jan 89 16:48:57 GMT
References: <1603@csuna.UUCP> <1989Jan23.144822.29002@cs.rochester.edu>
Sender: news@linus.UUCP
Reply-To: ted@mbunix (Ede)
Distribution: usa
Organization: The MITRE Corporation, Bedford, Mass.
Lines: 19

In article <1989Jan23.144822.29002@cs.rochester.edu> ken@cs.rochester.edu (Ken Yap) writes:

>Small nit: it's Helvetica Oblique. Italics are for serif fonts.

Correct me if I'm wrong (he says, reaching for his flame retardent
suit).  I was told that an Oblique font was just a normal font tilted
(by an algorithm) a certain number of degrees and an Italic font was
one that was re-designed (by hand) at that angle.

As a counter example, both Courier (not a serious font, I know) and
ITC Lubalin Graph have oblique versions and serifs.

A stroll through Adobe's font dictionaries may prove this.

Ted
|Ted Ede -- ted@mbunix.mitre.org -- The MITRE Corporation -- Burlington Road|
| linus!mbunix!ted -- Bedford MA, 01730 -- Mail Stop B015 -- (617) 271-2524 |
|                   - this line intentionally left blank -                  |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+