Star Micronics 8 Series - Page 44

Narrowcondensedfacesusedto becalled“compressed”.Theycramabout
fivecharacteminthespacewherethreeusuallygo-ideal forspreadsheets.
An extendedface, particularlyon a dot-matrixprinter,goes by several
names:“expanded,
““enlarged”or’’double-width’’printing.Nomatterwhat
it’scalled,extendedprintiswiderthanitishigh,andcanbefairlyeffective
in pageheadings.
Italiccharacters(sometimescalled“oblique”)areslanted.Ordinaryupright
charactersareoftencalled“reman”.YourStarLaserPrinter8comeswitha
built-inuprightCouriertypeface.Moreover,from any of the Star Laser-
Printer 8’s built-intypefacesyou can selecta subsetof uprightsymbols
calledRoman-8.
Afonf isacompletesetofcharactersin apafiicularsizeandtypeface.Inthe
worldoflaserprinters,thethreevariablesmentionedabove—weight,width
and style—are a few
fontattributes(sometimescalled“fontcharacteris-
tics”).Let’sconsiderthreemoreattributes:fontheight,spacingandpitch.
Fontheight
Thebaselineistheinvisiblelineuponwhichcharactersoftypesit.Sincethe
firstletterblocksweremadeofleadalloy,thedistancefromonebaselineto
thenextis calledleading(pronounced“ledding”).Typeitselfis measured
fromthetopofanascender(thepan extendingupinthebork, forcxample)
to thebottomof a descender(thedown-strokeof they or q ).
Themeasurementsusedtodescribefontsarepointsandpicas(derivedfrom
themarksandlettersin medievalchurchalmanacs).Thereare 12pointsto
the pica, and almost exactly 6 picas (72 points)to the inch. Your Star
LaserPrinter 8 quitehandilyprintstypefrom6 to 36pointsin size.
Laserprintersforcomputersmeasurefontheightinpoints.Onlaserprinters
the“whitespace”aboveascendersandbelowdescendersdependsonhow
the line is defined,so the line correspondsto leading.This type you’re
readinghasafontheightof 12points,and isspacedalittlelessthan5 lines
per inch.
36