Symbolsets - Star Micronics 8 Series Applications Manual

SYMBOL SETS
Let's summarizebriefly,to put the subjectof symbolsets in context.
The attributesof a font determinewhat that font will look like when it is
printed. We covered all but orientationat the start of this chapter, and
orientationin the last chapter.A font'sattributesinclude:
.
.
.
.
.
.
orientation
(portraitor landscape)
symbol set
(whichwe'll look at next)
spacing
(monospacedor proportional)
pitch
(10 or 16.66charactersper inch, for example)
font height
(measuredin points)
style (uprightor italics)
stroke
weight
(light,mediumor bold)
typeface
(LinePrinter,Tms Romn,Courierand so on)
Though they are not font attributes,such printing features as subscripts,
superscriptsand underliningare treated along with fonts in the following
chapters.Each emulationhas its own way of providingthese features.
Incidentally,the best way to underlineis to use the underlinecommandin
the emulationyou are using,insteadof backspacingand overprintingwith
the separateunderlinecharacter(–). If youdo thelatterwith
proportionally
spacedtext, you'llusuallyfind the underliningis too long for the text.
What are symbol sets?
Keyboardsdifferfromcountryto country.The Britishneed theirf symbol,
the Frenchneedtheir Qand 6, the Spanishneed their ~and il etc. Scientists
need particularmathematicalsignstoo.Thereeasilycouldbe fourhundred
or more possiblesymbolsfor any givenfont.
However,the numberof symbolsprintersstore for a font is limitedto 256
slots,asin ASCII.Sosomesymbols,ortheorderofsomesymbols,candiffer
in any font.Eachuniqueselectionand arrangementof symbolsis a symbol
set (sometimescalled a "graphicset" or "characterset").
The symtmlat position91 for exampleis an open bracket,[ , in the usual
ASCIIsymbolset.Butthe samepositionholdsA (capitalA withanumlaut)
in the German symbolset.
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