Page:Calligraphy for computers (Hershey, 1967) (IA DTIC AD0662398).djvu/20

 uniform in width.

Calligraphers agree that the white spaces within letters and between letters should have a uniform distribution along a line of print. This is not really possible in the presence of the letter pairs AA or W, but these letter pairs are rare. The spacing which should be allotted to each letter varies with the environment in which the letter is situated, and it even has been proposed that the width of the letter itself should vary with its environment. In the present alphabets each character block is allotted its own width, but the width can be changed to any other value as may be desired under program control in the computer.

Character Style

The digitalizations of simplex alphabets are adaptations of the alphabets on Le Roy lettering sets. The digitalizations of complex Roman, ' Greek, Italic, Russian alphabets are adaptations of the alphabets to be observed in newspapers, text books, and dictionaries.

Script and Gothic Alphabets

Originally there was only,one style of Roman lettering, but the need for a rapid cursive handwriting resulted in a rounding of angularity with the formation of the uncial style of lettering. Now there are two sets of characters for each style of lettering. The majuscules are used for initials and are known otherwise as capitals or upper case letters. The minuscules are used for text, and are known otherwise as small letters or lower case letters. Further evolution of the minuscules resulted in Script for writing and Gothic for printing.

Characters from these alphabets are borrowed occasionally by mathematicians to represent special quantities. 14