larry@csccat.cs.com (Larry Spence) (12/29/90)
I seem to recall that there is some "traditional" sample of text that
is often used to evaluate kerning, letter design, etc. I think it
began with the letters "hamburgefons..." (don't laugh, I did!). Can
someone clue me in on the full text, and any other samples that have
proven useful (aside from the pathological stuff like "AV," "To,"
etc.)?
Apologies if this is a dumb question, I'm not a type designer and am
posting this for an associate. Thanx in advance for any info.
--
Larry Spence
larry@csccat.cs.com
...{uunet,texsun,cs.utexas.edu,decwrl}!csccat!larryath@prosys.se (Anders Thulin) (12/30/90)
In article <4060@csccat.cs.com> larry@csccat.cs.com (Larry Spence) writes: >I seem to recall that there is some "traditional" sample of text that >is often used to evaluate kerning, letter design, etc. I think it >began with the letters "hamburgefons..." (don't laugh, I did!). Can >someone clue me in on the full text, and any other samples that have >proven useful (aside from the pathological stuff like "AV," "To," >etc.)? To be useful for who? The typeface designer or the typeface user? The word (or more correctly, the letterforms in the word) 'Hamburg' (occasionally with some extra letters) seems to be universally used by type designers to ensure the sanity of the type elements of their design. It's a sort of 'pons asinorum' - if the lettershapes don't work in that word, they won't work at all. If they pass the test, other tests are required to ensure that the typeface is of even colour, is properly kerned etc. No one test can be used for all this. I doubt very much that 'Hamburg' is useful to anyone else than the type designer. It is a one-shot test: it provides information only about details of some of the letter shapes, very little about kerning, and none at all about font colour and rhythm. I must also confess that if I found the word 'Hamburg' in a font sample I would tend to believe either that the sample was a preliminary version, or that the printer of the sample didn't know what he was doing, and consequently not fully professional. A finished typeface should not need any props like that, and if it does, it is very probably not a good one. I'm not a professional typographer, however, so these are only opinions. Unauthorized use prohibited ... A book designer would probaly be more interested to see a page or two with real-life text, than anything else. Hope this is of any help, -- Anders Thulin ath@prosys.se {uunet,mcsun}!sunic!prosys!ath Telesoft Europe AB, Teknikringen 2B, S-583 30 Linkoping, Sweden
walter@hpsadle.HP.COM (Walter Coole) (01/03/91)
TeX's testfont uses "hamburgefonstiv HAMBURGEFONSTIV" along with some other things that test various features. It used to be traditional to set a particular latin phrase (which I don't recall) in font samples; since that particular phrase started with a (capital) Q, font designers would attempt to outdo each other in producing impressive (flamboyant) Q's. Many people suggest that the truest test of a text font is natural text. Many display fonts are used only to set particular headlines, so there is no need to test anything other than the particular text to be set.