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Subject:Proportional vs. non-proportional fonts From:Rikki Nyman <nymanr -at- TRG -dot- TRGLINK -dot- COM> Date:Mon, 2 May 1994 13:16:47 -0700
I wanted to thank everyone who supplied me with suggestions for my typeface
dilemma last week. There was some confusion about we needed, e.g. I asked
for a "proportional font that acted like Courier." Problem was that our
technical guys asked for a "linear proportional font", a term with which I
am unfamiliar. To me a proportional font is one where spacing is determined
by the height vs. width of the letter, and Courier is monospaced
(non-proportional), a carry-over from the olden days when typewriters were
used. Anyway, they were very emphatic about it being a "proportional font"
and so I subsequently perpetrated my confusion upon you.
What we need is a typeface that is monospaced like Courier. Each letter
needs to take up one em space to be used in a pre-defined format (one letter
per box). After spending Saturday afternoon researching the possibilities,
I am not convinced that there is a monospaced typeface that can replace
Courier, much less be more aesthetic.
