tneff@bfmny0.BFM.COM (Tom Neff) (03/20/91)
That GillSans supplied with Adobe Type Manager 1.1 is a pretty weird
font, isn't it! I hate the tiny x-height as far as 300dpi printing
goes. Doesn't it look like the face the Brits use on their street and
tube signs and a lot of their adverts?
Has anyone installed Stone Informal for ATM? Now THERE'S a font I'd
like to play with!
--
For the curious: +---+ Tom Neff
Here's what RS-232 pins do! ==|:::|== tneff@bfmny0.BFM.COM
-- Inmac +---+ uunet!bfmny0!tneffblarsen@spider.uio.no (Bjorn Larsen) (03/23/91)
Tom Neff writes: >That GillSans supplied with Adobe Type Manager 1.1 is a pretty weird >font, isn't it! I hate the tiny x-height as far as 300dpi printing >goes. Doesn't it look like the face the Brits use on their street and >tube signs and a lot of their adverts? The following is an excerpt from Rookledge's International Typefinder, London 1990, quoted without permission: 'During the first half of this century the development of the sans serif took two routes. In England in 1916, London Transport began using a sans serif especially designed for them by Edward Johnston, it was a break with previous sans serifs because it was based on classical letterforms. His approach was very closely followed by his pupil and friend Eric Gill with Gill Sans in 1928. In Germany, designs were influenced by the teachings of the Bauhaus and developed along geometric lines. Paul Renner's Futura of 1928 is the most popular of this kind and has been widely copied.' I recommend the book. - bjorn
lee@sq.sq.com (Liam R. E. Quin) (03/26/91)
>That GillSans supplied with Adobe Type Manager 1.1 is a pretty weird >font, isn't it! I hate the tiny x-height as far as 300dpi printing >goes. Doesn't it look like the face the Brits use on their street and >tube signs and a lot of their adverts? Speaking as an Englishman :-), The tube signs are in a font especially designed for the London Underground by Edward Johnston, probably the most influential calligrapher in history! Road signs are in either Helvetica or Futura in general, with Helvetica much more dominant. If you travel in Italy, you will find that Futura is more common. This is why Helvetica appears bland to an English eye -- it is used for Airport Signs Saying No Smoking, and is associated with singularly uninteresting text! Fonts with a low x-height are often used in advertisements to give specific effects, but picking up a British newspaper I see helvetica in abundance! Eric Gill's Sans font was, however, designed in part by superimposing many versions of each letter, so perhaps to some extent it was a caricature of existing practice. Lee -- Liam R. E. Quin, lee@sq.com, SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, +1 (416) 963-8337 `A wrong that cannot be repaired must be transcended' Ursula K. Le Guin, in _Tehanu_
des@frogland.inmos.co.uk (David Shepherd) (03/26/91)
In article <73552092@bfmny0.BFM.COM>, tneff@bfmny0.BFM.COM (Tom Neff) writes: |> That GillSans supplied with Adobe Type Manager 1.1 is a pretty weird |> font, isn't it! I hate the tiny x-height as far as 300dpi printing |> goes. Doesn't it look like the face the Brits use on their street and |> tube signs and a lot of their adverts? I think GillSans was designed for either road signs or the tube here. N.b. road signs, tube, rail, airports etc all have there own individually designed fonts ! though they all look pretty similar! -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- david shepherd: des@inmos.co.uk or des@inmos.com tel: 0454-616616 x 529 inmos ltd, 1000 aztec west, almondsbury, bristol, bs12 4sq Leland says, you're going back to Missoula ... MONTANA
fkuhl@maestro.mitre.org (F. S. Kuhl) (03/27/91)
In article <73552092@bfmny0.BFM.COM>, tneff@bfmny0.BFM.COM (Tom Neff) writes: |> That GillSans supplied with Adobe Type Manager 1.1 is a pretty weird |> font, isn't it! I hate the tiny x-height as far as 300dpi printing |> goes. Doesn't it look like the face the Brits use on their street and |> tube signs and a lot of their adverts? Don't know about street signs, but Gill Sans was (so I understand) commissioned from Eric Gill for the London Underground and is still used on all their signs. -- Frederick Kuhl fkuhl@mitre.org Civil Systems Division The MITRE Corporation
tneff@bfmny0.BFM.COM (Tom Neff) (03/27/91)
Speaking as a Johnston! :-), I ain't saying that Gill Sans isn't interesting looking, just that it's not too great as a 300dpi text font. Seems more appropriate for display.