Font for DEC indicator panels

[steven at malikoff.com]

Guy said
> Hmm, I posted to the list about this 3 hours ago, and it hasn't appeared yet.
> Is there an extra vetting process for posts that include links to web sites?
> I included various links to font searching sites, cleaned-up samples of the DEC fonts
> from my own scan (online) of a DEC PDP-8/S panel, and specific fonts I found via
> search tools - that are very close or identical matches to the DEC panel fonts.
>
> Should I repost, or just wait till it appears?
>
> Guy

I sometimes find delays posting to cctalk when I (located +10 GMT) post before 10am local
time, ie. it is still the previous day on the cctalk server and most of the rest of the
world. My post seems to disappear for up to ten hours or so. I don't recall any trouble when
I post after 10am local time, it appears pretty much immediately. Well that's what it seems
to be like, I could be wrong but I don't worry about it too much.

Regarding fonts on reproduced panels. This is a common problem in vintage vehicle restoration
when reproduction dataplates are made and sold. Some of the repos are redrawn on computer and
retyped with a close font.

However this isn't really good enough for a demanding restorer. I've even seen a repro
nomenclature plate with a typo, which would be annoying considering the cost of some of these
things. If you have access to the original, nothing really beats reproducing the _image_ of
the panel with all its nuanced spacing, miniscule changes in letter size and orientation
and the like rather than recreating the panel.

In Noel's case the originals are probably not at hand, so there is obviously no choice but to
recreate them. I can't help with the font but it makes me think of the curved font on the front
of the PDP-11 consoles and in the handbook where the lowercase t has a different length depending
on whether it is in or at the end of a word.

Steve.