The debate in 1991: digital or hand-crafted type?
"Metal setting is practised today by only a handful of specialists, but it continues to provide the standards by which good typesetting is judged. Photosetting, and the computer setting which has largely displaced it, are criticised for being too perfect and lacking the character of hand-crafted type. Now, increasingly, designers are using desktop publishing systems such as the Macintosh to do their typesetting. The technology has matured considerably over the last two years and the time is ripe for a reassessment: is good typesetting possible on the Macintosh?"
(Andy Benedek, 1991)
Andy Benedek (1991). "The craft of digital type" Winter no. 2 vol. 1, Eye Magazine.
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
Sinclair ZX81: semigraphical / pseudographical characters
"If you press GRAPHICS (shifted 9) then the cursor will come up as 
: this means graphics mode. If you type in a symbol it will appear in its inverse video form, & this will go on until you press GRAPHICS again or NEWLINE. RUBOUT will have its usual meaning. Be careful not to lose the cursor amongst all the inverse video characters you've just typed in. ...
Right at the beginning are space & ten patterns of black, white & grey blobs; further on there are eleven more. These are called the graphics symbols & are used for drawing pictures. You can enter these from the keyboard, using graphics mode (except for space, which is an ordinary symbol using the 
cursor; the black square is inverse space). You use the 20 keys that have graphics symbols written on them. For instance, suppose you want the symbol 
, which is on the T key. Press GRAPHICS to get the 
cursor, & then press shifted T. From the previous description of the graphics mode, you would expect to get an inverse video symbol; but shifted T is normally <>, a token, & tokens have no inverses: so you get the graphics symbol instead."
(Steven Vickers, 1981, Sinclair Research Limited)
Fig.1 "graphics mode" table from Steven Vickers (1981). "Sinclair ZX81 BASIC Programming", Second Edition 1981, Copyright 1980 Sinclair Research Limited (converted to HTML by Robin Stuart).
2). Matthew Eagles (2008). "ZX81 VDU" TrueType font which replicates the letters, numbers etc. displayed on the screen of the ZX81.
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
Ampers-Fan: the history of the ampersand
"The dark horse of the keyboard, the ampersand exists to join things together, yet remains set apart. Whilst everyone can read and understand the ampersand, or the & symbol, how many of us know where it came from?
Alistair Sooke traces the history of the funny little character that has quietly given joy to so many, from a bored medieval scribe right the way through to a modern day digital font designer. Delighting type designers throughout the centuries as a chance within a font to create a small piece of art, it is a joyful moment in a functional resource. Speaking to Ampersfans Alastair enters into a world of letterpress, punchcutting and typography and discovers how the ampersand can be found at every step of the way, bringing a joyful flick of a tail to the dullest document.
If you thought the ampersand was a bright young thing in the world of type, you couldn't be more wrong; first credited to Marcus Tiro around 63 BC, combing the letters e and t from the Latin word 'et'. Fighting off competition from his nemesis, the 'Tironian Mark', Alastair then tracks the ampersand to 16th Century Paris where it was modelled in the hands of type designer to the King, Claude Garamond, then back across the sea to William Caslon's now famous interpretation, designed with a joyful array of flourishes and swirls. Alastair will discover how the ampersand became a calling card for many typographers, showcasing some of their best and most creative work.
A simple twist of the pen, the ampersand has managed to captivate its audience since print began, in Ampersfan Alistair tries to pin down this slippery character down once and for all."
(BBC Radio 4 Programmes, 2012)
Alistair Sooke (2012). "Ampers-Fan", Producer: : Jo Meek & Gillian Donovan, A Sparklab Production for BBC Radio 4, Last broadcast on Monday, 16:00 on BBC Radio 4.
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
So You Need A Typeface: typography flow diagram
"So You Need A Typeface is an infographic dealing with the subject of choosing the right typeface for a project. The list is (very loosely) based on the top 50 of the Top100 Best Schrieften by Font Shop."
(Julian Hansen)
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
Free typefaces
"This is a website dedicated to free fonts that are readily available on the web that I use regularly and would like to share. Of course free fonts aren't always the best option and good typography isn't just about pretty fonts, but there are a few out there that are more than worth a look, and I have featured some of my favourites here.
Please note: I am not distributing these fonts or claiming ownership, I'm just trying to point fellow designers in the direction of some useful resources."
(Simon Foster)
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
