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SYMBOL SETS
Let’ssummarizebriefly,to putthe subjectof symbolsetsin context.
The attributesof a fontdeterminewhatthatfont will look like whenit is
printed. We coveredall but orientationat the start of this chapter, and
orientationin thelastchapter.A font’sattributesinclude:
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orientation (portraitor landscape)
symbol set (whichwe’lllookat next)
spacing (monospacedor proportional)
pitch (10or 16.66charactersper inch,forexample)
font height (measuredin points)
style (uprightor italics)
stroke
weight (light,mediumor bold)
typeface (LinePrinter,TmsRomn,Courierandso on)
Thoughthey are not font attributes,such printingfeaturesas subscripts,
superscriptsandunderliningare treatedalongwith fontsin the following
chapters.Eachemulationhas its own way of providingthesefeatures.
Incidentally,thebestwayto underlineisto usethe underlinecommandin
theemulationyouareusing,insteadof backspacingandoverprintingwith
theseparateunderlinecharacter(–).If youdo thelatterwith
proportionally
spacedtext,you’llusuallyfindtheunderliningis too longfor the text.
What are symbol sets?
Keyboardsdifferfromcountrytocountry.TheBritishneedtheirf symbol,
theFrenchneedtheirQand6, theSpanishneedtheir~andiletc.Scientists
needparticularmathematicalsignstoo.Thereeasilycouldbefourhundred
or morepossiblesymbolsfor anygivenfont.
However,thenumberof symbolsprintersstorefor a fontis limitedto 256
slots,asinASCII.Sosomesymbols,ortheorderofsomesymbols,candiffer
in anyfont.Eachuniqueselectionandarrangementof symbolsis a symbol
set (sometimescalleda “graphicset”or “characterset”).
The symtmlat position91 for exampleis an openbracket,[ , in the usual
ASCIIsymbolset.ButthesamepositionholdsA(capitalAwithanumlaut)
in theGermansymbolset.
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