Seeking overstrike bitmap fonts to emulate Teletype

I'm searching for a PostScript font to reproduce the look of
old Teletypes, like the ASR-33 used as a terminal for computers
in the 1970s.

These used a metal ball of type struck through an inked ribbon
onto newsprint held to a rubber roller, so the printed character
in this media is so much more than the outline - it's the metal
font on the ball, it's the threads in the ribbon, it's the
texture of the paper.

Ideally, this would be an unusual sort of Type 3 font where each
characters was defined as a bitmap in shades of grey, and that
overstrike would be emulated by additive layering of the bitmaps,
as opposed to each bitmap replacing the previous character.

I have a web page devoted to preserving early alphabetic art,
such as overstrike art.  I am not interested in today's ASCII art.

I've written a program that translates the original ASCII overstrike
data into an Adobe Illustrator file.  In this way, I can at least
emulate the use of overstrike by using PhotoShop to rasterize the
AI file.  Examples of overstrike art recreated in this way are on
my web page.

I'm looking for any sort of font like this, or a tool that could
produce it, assuming I can scan examples of actual Teletype printing.

- John

Jefferson Computer Museum <http://www.threedee.com/jcm/>

-----== Posted via Deja News, The Leader in Internet Discussion ==-----
http://www.dejanews.com/rg_mkgrp.xp   Create Your Own Free Member Forum

FWIW, the latest issue of Publish magazine has a longish listing of font
vendors, their websites and such.  Seems that would be a good starting
place, if you can locate a copy.

-- 
Steve Rindsberg, Prez, RDP (a slide imaging service)
Microsoft MVP, Lotus L-Team
http://www.rdpslides.com
Please direct newsgroup replies to the newgroup, where I'm a volunteer
NOT to Email, where I charge for private consultations.

jfo...@threedee.com wrote:

>I'm searching for a PostScript font to reproduce the look of
>old Teletypes, like the ASR-33 used as a terminal for computers
>in the 1970s.

Can't help you. But if your museum could use a Dymo Pacesetter, we
have one in the back warehouse. Also a Varitype Headliner, and pile of
font disks. Apparently there was a Model K typositor here, but they
threrw it out before I arrived. That's the one "anique" in our back
room, that I would have kept.


Jeff/addesign a.a #1063
****************************************************************
Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum--Lucretius, 1st c. BC
"So vast is the sum of the iniquities that religion has induced."
****************************************************************

jfo...@threedee.com wrote:
>
>Ideally, this would be an unusual sort of Type 3 font where each
>characters was defined as a bitmap in shades of grey, and that
>overstrike would be emulated by additive layering of the bitmaps,
>as opposed to each bitmap replacing the previous character.

This is impossible with PostScript, where every mark made is "opaque"
and cannot depend on what was there before. 
----------------------------------------
Aandi Inston  qui...@dial.pipex.com
Visit http://www.quite.com/ for info on PostScript, 
PSAlter, psalters, tea, and small furry animals. And stuff.  

jfo...@threedee.com wrote:
> 
> I'm searching for a PostScript font to reproduce the look of
> old Teletypes, like the ASR-33 used as a terminal for computers
> in the 1970s.
.....
> I'm looking for any sort of font like this, or a tool that could
> produce it, assuming I can scan examples of actual Teletype printing.

Buy me a new ribbon for my KSR-33 and tell me what you want printed.....
It's been a while but I think it's still 'working order'.....

Also, seems to me there were at least a half-dozen fonts in the manual.
Not sure if the differences were 'special characters' only, or what.

Bill
Tucson

In article <6u5ii7$rl...@top.mitre.org>, jcm...@mwunix.mitre.org (Joe Morris) wrote:
> ....*please*: let's not start the "slash wars" thread again.

Have you ever noticed that sometimes it's the number that gets slashed (0, 
7), and sometimes the letter (Z) to reduce the chance of confusion? :-)

Alun.
~~~~
P.S. Slash-wars 2: Should the no-smoking (etc) sign have a red slash across 
the circle going between bottom left and top right, or bottom right and top 
left?

---
Texas Imperial Software | Try WFTPD, the Windows FTP Server. Find it
1602 Harvest Moon Place | at web site http://www.wftpd.com or email
Cedar Park TX 78613     | us at alu...@texis.com.  VISA / MC accepted.
Fax +1 (512) 378 3246   | NT based ISPs, be sure to read details of
Phone +1 (512) 378 3246 | WFTPD Pro, NT service version - $100.
*******-- Alpha processors now supported under Windows NT --*******

Aandi Inston wrote:
> 
> jfo...@threedee.com wrote:
> >
> >Ideally, this would be an unusual sort of Type 3 font where each
> >characters was defined as a bitmap in shades of grey, and that
> >overstrike would be emulated by additive layering of the bitmaps,
> >as opposed to each bitmap replacing the previous character.
> 
> This is impossible with PostScript, where every mark made is "opaque"
> and cannot depend on what was there before.
You could design your tty font as a (fairly sophisticated) Type3 font
that
generates bitmaps on the fly and uses imagemask to paint them.

Helge


-- 
H.B...@srz-berlin.de
H.B...@srz-berlin.com
H.B...@acm.org

>jfo...@threedee.com wrote:
>>
>>Ideally, this would be an unusual sort of Type 3 font where each
>>characters was defined as a bitmap in shades of grey, and that
>>overstrike would be emulated by additive layering of the bitmaps,
>>as opposed to each bitmap replacing the previous character.

I did see one posted recently, not grayscale because I'm not sure of the
arithmetic to add two characters' density. This one had some randomising
algorithm for the ribbon markings and effective pressure. Can't find the
url now :-(

-- 
Peter Kerr                           bodger
School of Music                      chandler
University of Auckland New Zealand   neo-Luddite

Helge Blischke <H.B...@srz-berlin.de> writes:

>Aandi Inston wrote:
>> 
>> jfo...@threedee.com wrote:
>> >
>> >Ideally, this would be an unusual sort of Type 3 font where each
>> >characters was defined as a bitmap in shades of grey, and that
>> >overstrike would be emulated by additive layering of the bitmaps,
>> >as opposed to each bitmap replacing the previous character.
>> 
>> This is impossible with PostScript, where every mark made is "opaque"
>> and cannot depend on what was there before.
>You could design your tty font as a (fairly sophisticated) Type3 font
>that
>generates bitmaps on the fly and uses imagemask to paint them.


All of this sounds a bit difficult to me.  

And I'm almost impossibly ignorant of fonts.

It would not be very difficult to produce a post-processor for TTY
data streams to switch fonts for processing by PostScript, were the
needed fonts available.  That I could do.  It ought not be impossible
(though beyond my ability) to design a TTY font, a TTY-overstrike-1
font, a TTY-overstrike-2 font, etc. It would be tedious in the extreme,
(a overstrike a, a overstrike b, ..., a overstrike }), but possible.

(This might use up a significant chunk of the UNICODE space.  It's brute
force, but sometimes that's the effective solution.)

What cannot be reproduced is the randomness of an ASR-33.  The lady
seated on the bar chair always looked a bit different, depending on the
printer.

It would be interesting to reproduce the background color.  
--
J.Otto Tennant                                                   jot...@pobox.com
                   Forsan et haec olim meminisse juvabit.
              Charter Member of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy

bill_h <bil...@sunsouthwest.com> writes:

>Also, seems to me there were at least a half-dozen fonts in the manual.
>Not sure if the differences were 'special characters' only, or what.

I no longer have at hand my TTY33 order configuration sheet to check
the font options, but the three choices that usually generated the most
heat among users were (surprise!) how the letter "O" and the digit zero
were represented.

You could choose between:

  slashed zero
  slashed letter "O"
  neither of the above (the letter "O" was clearly squared and
    the digit 0 was clearly rounded and horizontally compressed)

...*please*: let's not start the "slash wars" thread again.

But back on the font option question: was there ever a "weather font"
option for the TTY33?  The Weather Bureau and the aviation community
continued to use TTY28 machines (re-geared to run at 100 wpm) until
they were replaced by video terminals...or at least I never saw a
TTY33 or TTY35 in either service.

Joe Morris

Joe Morris

J. Otto Tennant wrote about the idea of reproducing ancient teletype
art:
> 
> What cannot be reproduced is the randomness of an ASR-33.

Aw, c'mon.  It's just a small matter of programming.

Joe Morris wrote:
> You could choose between:
> 
>   slashed zero
>   slashed letter "O"
>   neither of the above (the letter "O" was clearly squared and
>     the digit 0 was clearly rounded and horizontally compressed)
> 
> ...*please*: let's not start the "slash wars" thread again.

I won't, but I will point out that most of the mid-to-late-70's
printer drivers allowed the user to select a "0"<->"O" swap :-)

Let's not forget the "up-arrow" and "right-arrow" characters, either...

> But back on the font option question: was there ever a "weather font"
> option for the TTY33?  The Weather Bureau and the aviation community
> continued to use TTY28 machines (re-geared to run at 100 wpm) until
> they were replaced by video terminals...or at least I never saw a
> TTY33 or TTY35 in either service.

AFAIK the dependence on baudot is what prevented the weather font
from appearing on the 33/35's.

Tim.

J. Otto Tennant wrote:
> 
> Helge Blischke <H.B...@srz-berlin.de> writes:
> 
> >Aandi Inston wrote:
> >>
> >> jfo...@threedee.com wrote:
> >> >
> >> >Ideally, this would be an unusual sort of Type 3 font where each
> >> >characters was defined as a bitmap in shades of grey, and that
> >> >overstrike would be emulated by additive layering of the bitmaps,
> >> >as opposed to each bitmap replacing the previous character.
> >>
> >> This is impossible with PostScript, where every mark made is "opaque"
> >> and cannot depend on what was there before.
> >You could design your tty font as a (fairly sophisticated) Type3 font
> >that
> >generates bitmaps on the fly and uses imagemask to paint them.
> 
> All of this sounds a bit difficult to me.
How many $$ would you spend for such a "weird" font ?
Helge
> 
> And I'm almost impossibly ignorant of fonts.
> 

-- 
H.B...@srz-berlin.de
H.B...@srz-berlin.com
H.B...@acm.org

On Sat, 19 Sep 1998 20:08:53 -0700, bill_h <bil...@sunsouthwest.com>
wrote:

>jfo...@threedee.com wrote:

>> I'm searching for a PostScript font to reproduce the look of
>> old Teletypes, like the ASR-33 used as a terminal for computers
>> in the 1970s.

>Also, seems to me there were at least a half-dozen fonts in the manual.
>Not sure if the differences were 'special characters' only, or what.

You're probably talking about "weather", "foreign", and sets like
that.  The actual font was, IIRC, Courier.
-- 
Al - aklein at villagenet dot com