[GreenKeys] Teletype Corp archives, museum

[Eric Scace K3NA]

Hi John and others --

   I got quite a few direct messages of interest with similar questions... so I'll summarize some of my thoughts on those points to
the list here.  (Unfortunately, I haven't gotten any leads yet on Teletype Corp documents!)

   Unfortunately, it's rather complex to produce a typeface that has the thin variations in color intensity associated with the
fibers in a typewriter ribbon.  For most on-screen applications, those details would be lost in the low pixel-density of the screen.
For print applications, one could consider emulating a ribbon appearance.  But that emulation might be more easily done by
superimposing a screen over the image to modulate it, rather than building it into the font.

   The variations from the black intensity of a ribbon also fall apart as soon as one starts to scale the font to any other size
than that used on Teletype machines.  Does one scale up/down those ribbon thread-level variations?  Or leave them at the original
spacing of a real ribbon?  If the later approach were to be used, every size would require a complete re-design of the face.

   This hints as my answer to the one of the first questions of typeface design:  Am I designing an exact replica of the print
produced by a Model 28, or am I designed a modern font well-grounded in a historical antecedent?  (The answer to this question also
depends heavily on the intended applications for the family.)

   If I wanted to just imitate what a Model 28 produced, that could be done without a font at all -- just photograph an excellent
example of a printout, and scissor up the images.  There would be no point in having a digital typeface, since one would be
restricted to only one size.

   My chosen goal is a modern digital face that preserves key design attributes of the original letterforms, but works both
on-screen and on a page.  Doing a "good job" in identifying and adhering to those original design attributes should result in glyphs
that you would immediately recognize as "Model 28 characters" -- even if the size is different on the printed page or on your
computer screen... and even if the character is one that Teletype Corp never produced for its typewheels or typeboxes.  Of course,
if one chooses the correct size, one will be able to print out something at the exact spacing and size of the original Teletype
machines... but one will be able to enjoy other sizes on both screen and paper.

   Some variants fit within this scheme:
-- Different faces were used for chad and chadless tape and for printers.  Those could be different families (more work!).
-- One variant may have only the uppercase letterforms, and typing a lowercase key on a keyboard would invoke the uppercase
letterform.  This makes life easy when one is operating computer-RTTY: no need to lock the keyboard into uppercase.
-- Another variant might use the original design principles to develop lowercase glyphs.  Of course those lowercase glyphs didn't
exist on Teletype machines.  But a well-designed mono-spaced typeface that looks good on a screen, and includes lowercase and other
glyphs, could quickly be adopted for displaying computer software code or for other applications requiring a mono-spaced face.

   I don't intend to undertake italic or bold faces for the family -- that really seems outside the sense of the original design...
and I don't see a high demand for italic, bold, or small caps in the kinds of applications where one desires a mono-spaced font.

   And, just to make things more time-consuming, there are no glyph encodings defined in Unicode for meteorological glyphs used in
"weather' typeboxes... nor do encodings exist for glyphs used by reperforators for characters such as blank, figs, and letters.
Fortunately, I happen to be a meteorologist in a past life, and have the credentials and materials necessary to successfully apply
to the Unicode Pooh-Bahs to get these glyphs added.

73,
-- Eric

-----Original Message-----
From: greenkeys-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:greenkeys-bounces at mailman.qth.net]On Behalf Of John Foust
Sent: 2004 July 29 18:22
To: eric at k3na.org; GreenKeys
Subject: Re: [GreenKeys] Teletype Corp archives, museum


At 03:51 PM 7/29/2004, Eric Scace K3NA wrote:
>  As some of you know, I am working (slowly) on the development of a digital typeface family that replicates character forms used
>on Teletype equipment in the Model 28 series.
>  Typography is a complex science as well as an artform.

I've longed for such a font.  See my web page on the
bastard step-child ASR-33 artwork from the computer side of RTTY:

http://www.threedee.com/jcm/aaa/index.html

Do you intend to reproduce the forms on the printhead (with
clean lines) or do you artfully want to reproduce the real-world
appearance of the letter forms as struck through an inked
(and possibly worn) cloth ribbon on newsprint paper stock?

- John

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