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Narrowcondensedfacesusedto be called"compressed". T hey cram about
fivecharactemin thespacewherethreeusuallygo-ideal for spreadsheets.
An extended face, particularlyon a dot-matrixprinter, goes by several
names:"expanded, " "enlarged"or''double-width' 'printing.Nomatterwhat
it's called,extendedprintis widerthanit is high,andcan be fairlyeffective
in page headings.
Italiccharacters(sometimescalled"oblique")areslanted.Ordinaryupright
charactersareoftencalled"reman".YourStarLaserPrinter8 comeswitha
built-inupright Couriertypeface.Moreover,from any of the Star Laser-
Printer 8's built-intypefacesyou can select a subset of upright symbols
called Roman-8.
Afonf is a completeset of charactersin a pafiicularsizeandtypeface.In the
worldoflaserprinters,thethreevariablesmentionedabove—weight,width
and style—are a few
font
attributes(sometimescalled "font characteris-
tics").Let's considerthree more attributes:font height,spacingand pitch.
Font height
Thebaselineistheinvisiblelineuponwhichcharactersof typesit.Sincethe
firstletterblocksweremadeof leadalloy,thedistancefromonebaselineto
the nextis calledleading(pronounced"ledding").Type itselfis measured
fromthetopof anascender(thepan extendingup in theb ork, forcxample)
to the bottomof a descender(the down-strokeof they or q ).
Themeasurements usedtodescribefontsarepointsandpicas(derivedfrom
the marksand lettersin medievalchurchalmanacs).There are 12pointsto
the pica, and almost exactly 6 picas (72 points) to the inch. Your Star
LaserPrinter 8 quitehandilyprintstype from 6 to 36 pointsin size.
Laserprintersforcomputersmeasurefontheightin points.Onlaserprinters
the "whitespace"aboveascendersand belowdescendersdependson how
the line is defined, so the line correspondsto leading.This type you're
readinghas a fontheightof 12points,and is spaceda littleless than 5 lines
per inch.
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