Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!att!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcvax!sunic!liuida!prosys!ath From: ath@helios.prosys.se (Anders Thulin) Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript Subject: Re: Type sample text. Message-ID: <462@helios.prosys.se> Date: 17 Aug 89 06:57:37 GMT References: <440@helios.prosys.se> <1006@adobe.UUCP> <1339@draken.nada.kth.se> <1012@adobe.UUCP> <3898@phri.UUCP> <120166@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> <3269@daisy.UUCP> <1989Aug16.152652.3275@cs.rochester.edu> Reply-To: ath@prosys.se Followup-To: ath@prosys.se Organization: Programsystem AB, Linkoping, SWEDEN Lines: 28 In article <1989Aug16.152652.3275@cs.rochester.edu> ken@cs.rochester.edu.UUCP (Ken Yap) writes: > >Type samples are used to >give an idea of the appearance of a typeface, including kerning. One >phrase I have seen is HAMBURGEFONSTIV. Does anybody know the origin of >this? That particular spelling is probably from Donald Knuth's The METAFONT Book, or possibly his book on the Computer Modern Roman typefaces. If my memory serves me right, he also uses it in lower case. I haven't come across either of these before. I have, though, seen the word 'Hamburg' (with that combination of upper and lower case letters) on several type proofs. It was explained to me that that word contains the most important elements (glyphemes ?) of a typeface. If 'Hamburg' looks good, and the typeface is built from the elements that appear there, chances are that the remaining glyphs also will look good. It's sort of a 'back-of-the-envelope' test of a typeface. The remaining letters ('efonstiv') have probably been added to make that test even more conclusive. I would think, though, that the 'n' wouldn't contribute much to the outcome of the test - its elements are already present in 'm'. Similarly, 'i' is largely represented by the 'r'. -- Anders Thulin, Programsystem AB, Teknikringen 2A, S-583 30 Linkoping, Sweden ath@prosys.se {uunet,mcvax}!sunic!prosys!ath