Sunday, September 6, 2020

Twitter Thread: Fonts Are Surprisingly Fascinating


Well, well, we didn't see this one coming. It's fair enough to say that when one hears mention of fonts, excitement is not the natural response. But, here we are. Turns out fonts are way cooler than they get credit for. Learn something new every day. 

1.

Text - Benjamin Molineaux @benmolineaux Kids today: "you mean the 'save' button represents some kind of physical storage disk? OMG" Me today: "you mean 'upper case' and 'lower case' refer to the physical cases where printers kept their letters? OMG"

2.

Text - Upper Case % 2LmEm& E E DE D EFG M LMNO RIST VW J XYZJ स e13456 78 e o yPwl: En Em Ods ads JEm a Space Quads Lower Case 3.15 Pair of printer's cases (drawn by Rudolph Růžička for D.B. Updike's Printing Types). 19:24 · 13 Sep 19 · Twitter Web App 日

3.

Text - Marc Verstaen @verstaen Replying to @benmolineaux and @GlennF It has French roots. Case means box in old French. Upper boxes, lower boxes. Bas de case, haut de case.

4.

Text - Starburst vacuum @miopapio · 4d v Replying to @benmolineaux and @MaryRobinette now i only need to understand where the words type and font come from, and i'm done 1 27 ♡ 21 Don Mackie @mackie_don · 4d Font has a common root with found as in foundry. Type cast from molten metal. Having seen them in action Linotype machines are among my favourite bits of machinery. A giant typewriter with a furnace and crucible of molten lead at the back. There's a romance here.

5.

Text - Jason Thorpe @thorpej · 3d Font designers are still called foundries. 1 28 Mary Robinette Kowal O @. · 3d v Jaw drops 1 11 pfarq @pfarqeu · 1d Also, "leading" isn't the amount of space that "leads" the type, it is the size of the lead (metal) strips used to create said space. 1

6.

Text - Henningham Family Press. · 4d v L Replying to @benmolineaux and @MargotAtwell Point sizes are seemingly random between typefaces because they refer to the piece of lead the type was on which you can no longer see. 1 ♡ 15 Katrina @KatrinaTransfem · 4d There are 72 points in an inch, and the point size refers to the total height of the character set 2 27 1 24 Margot Atwell @MargotAtw. · 4d v Wow, I never realized this. I love type history! O 1 2

7.

Text - Moon-faced Assassin .. 24 Replying to @benmolineaux and @Kilalalaa Also, in a printing press, putting a bunch of common words or phrases together is accomplished by mounting them in a single plate of text called a "Stereotype." EI And the sound it makes when it's pressed to the page is "cliche." Swear to god. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clich%C3%.. 27 40 125

8.

Text - Maxwell "Ultracynic" Lamb . · 4d Replying to @benmolineaux and @eleanor_ayres And the shift key used to physically shift the entire typebar upwards on typewriters. When people used to cut and paste text, it was with scissors and paste glue. We are full of skeuomorphism. 27 58 626

9.

Text - Margaret O'Hara @quizicist Replying to @benmolineaux and @stuartgreen74 Your mind is going to be blown when you find out that return comes from carriage return when the entire bit of the type- writer holding the paper re- turned to its original position. I remember those days. And the little ringing noise as it did so. 3:44 · 15 Sep 19 · Twitter for iPad

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