[comp.fonts] What Fonts are Good for FAX

tut%cairo@Sun.COM (Bill "Bill" Tuthill) (04/11/90)

FAX transmission will soon be-- or already is-- cheaper than first
class US mail.  Business correspondence that hasn't already switched
to FAX for speedy transmission will probably soon switch because of
lower cost.

The drawback of FAX is poor quality because of low resolution, which
I believe is around 100 dpi.  Has anybody done legibility tests to
determine which fonts look best on FAX?  Lucida?  Is there software
to perform grid alignment so lines don't look as bad?

briand@tekig5.PEN.TEK.COM (Brian D Diehm) (04/12/90)

In article <134284@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> tut%cairo@Sun.COM (Bill "Bill" Tuthill) writes:
>The drawback of FAX is poor quality because of low resolution, which
>I believe is around 100 dpi.  Has anybody done legibility tests to
>determine which fonts look best on FAX?  Lucida?  Is there software
>to perform grid alignment so lines don't look as bad?

Adobe, in their type catalog Font & Function, (issue before the last-released
one) did just that with ten different typefaces. They didn't discuss why they
chose those ten to test, but they did rank them for their resulting clarity
after FAX transmission.

Lucida definitely came out on top. If you look at the letter packing and the
natural weight of this font, it is obvious. Bookman came out respectably. If
you e-mail me, I will look up the original and list the results in Adobe's
order.

-- 
-Brian Diehm
Tektronix, Inc.                (503) 627-3437         briand@tekig5.PEN.TEK.COM
P.O. Box 500, M/S 47-561
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