Different font for second 1 on commodore 1571 drives (and others)

Toby Thain toby at telegraphics.com.au
Thu May 5 15:53:32 CDT 2022


On 2022-05-05 1:43 p.m., John Robertson via cctalk wrote:
> On 2022/05/05 10:26 a.m., Toby Thain via cctalk wrote:
>> On 2022-05-05 1:03 p.m., John Herron via cctalk wrote:
>>> Someone at work pointed this out and I've never really thought about 
>>> it. Is
>>> anyone here aware of the decision or reason to use a different 1 
>>> character
>>> for the last 1 vs the first 1?
>>
>> Got a picture?
> 
> They may have run out of that original font if they were setting the 
> type with something like Lettraset in the day.

An easy contemporary solution to that would have been to use a process 
camera and make a copy.

However, based on this picture: 
http://dunfield.classiccmp.org/c64/h/diskf.jpg , there *is* a good 
typographic reason to cut the serif off the second '1'; if you didn't, 
it would look ridiculous. The typographer's rule is, "If it _looks_ 
right, it _is_ right," and the decal as shipped looks fine, 
typographically. We make these slight "adjustments" all the time, it's a 
big part of the job (especially for logos) - and reveals that a 
professional was involved. Usually people don't even notice them, 
because that's the other rule of typography.

--Toby


> 
> I restore and sell the first coin operated video game - Nutting's 
> Computer Space - and they mixed all sorts of fonts on the control panel. 
> It was a pain to reproduce it!
> 
> John :-#)#
> 



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