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Narrowcondensedfacesusedto becalled“compressed”.Theycramabout
fivecharacteminthespacewherethreeusuallygo-ideal forspreadsheets.
An extendedface, particularlyon a dot-matrixprinter, goes by several
names:“expanded,
““enlarged”or’’double-width’’printing.Nomatterwhat
it’scalled,extendedprintiswiderthanit ishigh,andcanbefairlyeffective
in pageheadings.
Italiccharacters(sometimescalled“oblique”)areslanted.Ordinaryupright
charactersareoftencalled“reman”.YourStarLaserPrinter8 comeswitha
built-inuprightCouriertypeface.Moreover,from any of the Star Laser-
Printer 8’s built-intypefacesyou can selecta subsetof uprightsymbols
calledRoman-8.
Afonf isacompletesetofcharactersin apafiicularsizeandtypeface.In the
worldoflaserprinters,thethreevariablesmentionedabove—weight,width
and style—are a few
fontattributes(sometimescalled“fontcharacteris-
tics”).Let’sconsiderthreemoreattributes:fontheight,spacingand pitch.
Font height
Thebaselineistheinvisiblelineuponwhichcharactersoftypesit.Sincethe
firstletterblocksweremadeofleadalloy,thedistancefromonebaselineto
thenextis calledleading(pronounced“ledding”).Typeitselfis measured
fromthetopofanascender(thepan extendingupinthebork, forcxample)
to thebottomof a descender(thedown-strokeof they or q ).
Themeasurementsusedtodescribefontsarepointsandpicas(derivedfrom
themarksandlettersinmedievalchurchalmanacs).Thereare 12pointsto
the pica, and almostexactly 6 picas (72 points)to the inch. Your Star
LaserPrinter 8 quitehandilyprintstypefrom6 to 36pointsin size.
Laserprintersforcomputersmeasurefontheightinpoints.Onlaserprinters
the“whitespace”aboveascendersandbelowdescendersdependson how
the line is defined,so the line correspondsto leading.This type you’re
readinghasa fontheightof 12points,and is spacedalittlelessthan5 lines
per inch.
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