cplai@daisy.UUCP (Chung-Pang Lai) (08/10/89)
]roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith) writes, about Adobe's Font&Function catalog:
]
]> I've always wondered about the type samples. Who picks the silly
]> little bits of text used in the type samples?
I think the best phrase of text used in type samples is:
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
It contains all 26 characters of the alphabet.
--
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{pyramid, osu-cis, uunet, killer}!daisy!cplai C.P. Lai
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Daisy Systems Corp, 700B Middlefield Road, Mtn View CA 94039. (415)960-6961caspar@kunivv1.sci.kun.nl (Caspar Terheggen) (08/10/89)
In article <3269@daisy.UUCP> cplai@daisy.UUCP (Chung-Pang Lai) writes: > >I think the best phrase of text used in type samples is: > The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. >It contains all 26 characters of the alphabet. A shorter one reads: "the five boxing wizards jump quickly" but this is irrelevant, because the reason for these sentences is an *easy* way to try all letters on a typewriter (real words type faster than simply the entire alphabet, so I am told). If you really want to provide a good type sample you have to include "difficult" words like AVIATOR (A next to V) and such, as someone else pointed out earlier (I forgot who s/he was, sorry). If you just want to show all letters of the alphabet "abcd..." would suffice. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Caspar Terheggen +31 80 612800 caspar@sci.kun.nl U634008@HNYKUN11 -------------------------------------------------------------------------
ken@cs.rochester.edu (Ken Yap) (08/16/89)
|I think the best phrase of text used in type samples is: | The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. |It contains all 26 characters of the alphabet. This phrase is used to quickly verify that all the alphabet keys in typewriter work. If the letters don't work on your laser printer or typesetter don't work you have a big problem. Type samples are used to give an idea of the appearance of a typeface, including kerning. One phrase I have seen is HAMBURGEFONSTIV. Does anybody know the origin of this?
ath@helios.prosys.se (Anders Thulin) (08/17/89)
In article <1989Aug16.152652.3275@cs.rochester.edu> ken@cs.rochester.edu.UUCP (Ken Yap) writes: > >Type samples are used to >give an idea of the appearance of a typeface, including kerning. One >phrase I have seen is HAMBURGEFONSTIV. Does anybody know the origin of >this? That particular spelling is probably from Donald Knuth's The METAFONT Book, or possibly his book on the Computer Modern Roman typefaces. If my memory serves me right, he also uses it in lower case. I haven't come across either of these before. I have, though, seen the word 'Hamburg' (with that combination of upper and lower case letters) on several type proofs. It was explained to me that that word contains the most important elements (glyphemes ?) of a typeface. If 'Hamburg' looks good, and the typeface is built from the elements that appear there, chances are that the remaining glyphs also will look good. It's sort of a 'back-of-the-envelope' test of a typeface. The remaining letters ('efonstiv') have probably been added to make that test even more conclusive. I would think, though, that the 'n' wouldn't contribute much to the outcome of the test - its elements are already present in 'm'. Similarly, 'i' is largely represented by the 'r'. -- Anders Thulin, Programsystem AB, Teknikringen 2A, S-583 30 Linkoping, Sweden ath@prosys.se {uunet,mcvax}!sunic!prosys!ath
jaap+@andrew.cmu.edu (Jaap Akkerhuis) (08/17/89)
> Excerpts from netnews.comp.lang.postscript: 17-Aug-89 Re: Type sample > text. Anders Thulin@helios.pro (1362) > That particular spelling is probably from Donald Knuth's The METAFONT > Book, or possibly his book on the Computer Modern Roman typefaces. If > my memory serves me right, he also uses it in lower case. Variations on the word Hamburg are in use as font samples for at least 50 year. And no, I don't know who & why it started. jaap
john@trigraph.uucp (John Chew) (08/18/89)
In article <1989Aug16.152652.3275@cs.rochester.edu> Ken Yap <ken@cs.rochester.edu> writes: >... Type samples are used to >give an idea of the appearance of a typeface, including kerning. One >phrase I have seen is HAMBURGEFONSTIV. Does anybody know the origin of >this? "Hamburgefons" and similar nonsense words are used by type designers to illustrate each of the different elements that make up the letters in a typeface. They typically do not have anything to do with kerning, as a text sample much larger than a single word is needed to show all the possible kerning pairs necessary for a typeface. John -- john j. chew, iii phone: +1 416 425 3818 AppleLink: CDA0329 trigraph, inc., toronto, canada {uunet!utai!utcsri,utgpu,utzoo}!trigraph!john dept. of math., u. of toronto poslfit@{utorgpu.bitnet,gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca}