Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!nic.MR.NET!xanth!mcnc!rti!sas!bts
From: bts@sas.UUCP (Brian T. Schellenberger)
Newsgroups: comp.fonts
Subject: Re: Italic & Oblique
Message-ID: <800@sas.UUCP>
Date: 1 Feb 89 23:33:36 GMT
References: <1603@csuna.UUCP> <1989Jan23.144822.29002@cs.rochester.edu> <43873@linus.UUCP> <323@iconsys.UUCP>
Reply-To: bts@sas.UUCP (Brian T. Schellenberger)
Distribution: usa
Organization: SAS Institute Inc, Cary NC
Lines: 41

In article <323@iconsys.UUCP> bryan@iconsys.UUCP (Bryan Cardoza) writes:
|In article <1989Jan23.144822.29002@cs.rochester.edu> ken@cs.rochester.edu (Ken Yap) writes:
|In article <43873@linus.UUCP> ted@mbunix (Ede) writes:
|>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.
|
|You were told wrong; Ken is correct according to my professional designer
|friends.

Not so fast.  An oblique or slant font is, indeed, a slanted version of a
"normal" roman font.  It can be slanted algorithmicly or by design, and it
can be sans or with serifs, but it is always made with the same basic letter
shapes as the roman version of the same font.

An italic font, on the other hand, has different letter shapes.  It more
closely resembles a hand-written script; notice especially the differences 
in "a" and "g" in most italic vs. roman fonts.  An italic font may or may not
exist for a serif or sans serif font.

However, *in*practice*, modern oblique fonts are almost always slanted 
by algorithm.  If you want the same shape, why do otherwise?  And italic 
fonts can never be done by algorithm.  So, for most practical purposes,
the original statement was correct.

Also, for most practical purposes (although this is a poorer generalization),
the original statement that started this thread is correct, too.  Although
the concepts are independent, serif body fonts almost always have italics,
and sanserif fonts almost never do (though their obliques are sometimes 
mis-called italic).  It is simply harder to create a distinctly different,
yet related, set of letter shapes without the serifs to work with.  And
since nobody in their right might sets entire documents in sanserif fonts,
it isn't as important to have real italics anyway.  (Plus, sanserif fonts
are supposed to look simple and uncluttered, and having multiple basic
shapes for each letter tends to work against this idea.)
-- 
-- Brian, the Man from Babble-on.		...!mcnc!rti!sas!bts
--
"All the people are so happy now, their heads are caving in.  I'm glad they are
a snowman with protective rubber skin."  -- THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS