[comp.lang.postscript] text for font samples

karl@umb.umb.edu (Karl Berry.) (08/12/89)

(Why are we discussing this in comp.lang.postscript?)

Showing all 26 letters in a text sample intended
to display the font doesn't prove very much. What typographers
are interested in (among other things) is the gray value
of the font, and that can only be seen with a sample
of real text (or randomly generated strings with
the same letter frequencies as real text, whatever).

AV combinations and such aren't exactly what I
would call `difficult'; that's just a question
of (1) the font designer looking at that
combination and kerning it, and (b) the
composition software being able to handle the
kerns.

Whoever it was that said the texts are probably
different according to the intended audience
had it right. U&lc (ITC's house organ) always
shows its new faces in the same text (without
hyphenation), as someone surmised.

karl@umb.edu   ...!harvard!umb!karl