Tag: typography

“… that Chinese instruction manual font”

(this is an old post from 2021 that got caught in my drafts somehow)

Mike asked:

To which I suggested:

English text in MOESongUN monospaced serif font" "You mean this one? This is MOESongUN from Taiwan"

Not very helpful links, more of a thought-dump:

First PostScript font: STSong (华文宋体) was released in 1991, making it the first PostScript font by a Chinese foundry [ref: Typekit blog — Pan-CJK Partner Profile: SinoType]. But STSong looks like Garamond(ish).

A table of the latin characters @, A-Z, [, \, ], ^, _, `, a-z and { in STSong half-width latin, taken from fontforge

Maybe source: GB 5007.1-85 24×24 Bitmap Font Set of Chinese Characters for Information Exchange. Originally from 1985, this is a more recent version: GB 5007.1-2010: Information technology—Chinese ideogram coded character set (basic set)—24 dot matrix font.

half-width Latin text table from Chinese standard GB 5007.1-85

Glint

geometric pattern made from two floral type ornaments designed by David Bethel
my first decent vector rendering of David Bethel’s “Glint” typographic ornaments (Monotype B1309 & B1310, 1956)

I’m really enjoying Elisabeth Fraser’s The Glint Game, a delightfully nerdy pattern diversion that uses real metal type.

squared pad with floral imprints and metal type in plastic holders
18pt Glint Game from Frauhaus

For completeness: Level 9 “Snowball” bitmap font

screenshot from an emulated Amstrad CPC464 with yellow text on a blue background. The font is some horrific "futuristic" thing that looks like the numbers on the bottom of paper cheques, for some reason. The first lines of text say *** It's the Level 9 font *** *** from Snowball! *** Dug up by scruss, 2020-01 In blue text, there are a few lines of generic "lorem ipsum" filler text. The last line says "arfle barfle gloop?", which was the Level9 parser's error message. Three characters of the Level9 logo follow: a capital L and digit 9 kerned into the same character cell Under this, in yellow again, an ASCII chart of the characters from space (32) to DEL (127)
The Snowball font on the Amstrad CPC 464

Oooh blecch — did I really like this when I was a young ‘un? Following on from the same process as in The coolest font (when I was 15, that is) here’s the bitmap font from Level 9’s Snowball.

 10 REM    *** L9SFONT.BAS ***
 15 REM bitmap font from Level 9's
 20 REM Snowball text adventure
 30 REM  on the Amstrad CPC 464
 40 REM (it was so cool at the time ...)
 50 REM Dug up by scruss, 2020-01
 60 REM ==============================
 100 SYMBOL AFTER 32
 110 MODE 1
 120 GOSUB 1000
 130 PRINT" *** It's the Level 9 font ***"
 140 PRINT" ***    from  Snowball!    ***"
 150 PRINT"   Dug up by scruss, 2020-01"
 160 PRINT
 170 PEN 2
 180 PRINT"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur"
 190 PRINT"adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor"
 200 PRINT"incididunt ut labore et dolore magna"
 210 PRINT"aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis"
 220 PRINT"nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris"
 230 PRINT"nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat"
 240 PRINT"arfle barfle gloop? | | |"
 250 PRINT
 260 PEN 1
 270 FOR i%=32 TO 127
 280 PRINT CHR$(i%); " ";
 290 NEXT i%
 300 PRINT
 310 PRINT
 990 END
 1000 SYMBOL 33,&10,&28,&28,&28,&10,0,&38,0
 1010 SYMBOL 34,&66,&66,&44,&88,0,0,0,0
 1020 SYMBOL 35,0,&24,&7e,&24,&24,&7e,&24,0
 1030 SYMBOL 36,&10,&7c,&40,&7c,&04,&7c,&10,0
 1040 SYMBOL 37,&e4,&a4,&e8,&10,&2e,&4a,&4e,0
 1050 SYMBOL 38,&70,&88,&88,&72,&84,&88,&76,0
 1060 SYMBOL 39,&0c,&0c,&08,&10,0,0,0,0
 1070 SYMBOL 40,&0c,&10,&30,&30,&20,&14,&0c,0
 1080 SYMBOL 41,&30,&28,&04,&0c,&0c,&08,&30,0
 1090 SYMBOL 42,&10,&54,&38,&fe,&38,&54,&10,0
 1100 SYMBOL 43,0,&10,&10,&7c,&10,&10,0,0
 1110 SYMBOL 44,0,0,0,0,&18,&18,&10,&20
 1120 SYMBOL 45,0,0,0,&fc,0,0,0,0
 1130 SYMBOL 46,0,0,0,0,&1c,&14,&1c,0
 1140 SYMBOL 47,0,&06,&0e,&08,&10,&70,&60,0
 1150 SYMBOL 48,&fc,&8c,&8c,&84,&c4,&c4,&fc,0
 1160 SYMBOL 49,&30,&10,&10,&10,&18,&18,&38,0
 1170 SYMBOL 50,&f8,&98,&08,&f8,&80,&c8,&f8,0
 1180 SYMBOL 51,&7c,&64,&04,&3c,&34,&04,&7c,0
 1190 SYMBOL 52,&c8,&88,&88,&f8,&08,&18,&18,0
 1200 SYMBOL 53,&f8,&98,&80,&f0,&08,&c8,&f0,0
 1210 SYMBOL 54,&78,&98,&80,&f8,&98,&c8,&f8,0
 1220 SYMBOL 55,&fc,&c4,&04,&08,&08,&18,&18,0
 1230 SYMBOL 56,&fc,&c4,&8c,&fc,&84,&9c,&fc,0
 1240 SYMBOL 57,&fc,&e4,&84,&fc,&04,&0c,&0c,0
 1250 SYMBOL 58,&38,&28,&38,0,&38,&28,&38,0
 1260 SYMBOL 59,&18,&18,0,&18,&18,&10,&20,0
 1270 SYMBOL 60,&04,&08,&10,&20,&10,&08,&04,0
 1280 SYMBOL 61,0,0,&7e,0,&7e,0,0,0
 1290 SYMBOL 62,&80,&40,&20,&10,&20,&40,&80,0
 1300 SYMBOL 63,&7c,&04,&1c,&10,&10,0,&10,0
 1310 SYMBOL 64,&3e,&22,&2e,&2a,&2e,&20,&3e,0
 1320 SYMBOL 65,&fc,&c4,&8c,&fc,&84,&c4,&c4,0
 1330 SYMBOL 66,&f8,&84,&e4,&f8,&84,&9c,&f8,0
 1340 SYMBOL 67,&fc,&8c,&80,&80,&c0,&c4,&fc,0
 1350 SYMBOL 68,&f8,&64,&64,&44,&4c,&4c,&f8,0
 1360 SYMBOL 69,&fc,&8c,&c0,&f8,&c0,&8c,&fc,0
 1370 SYMBOL 70,&fc,&9c,&80,&f8,&80,&c0,&c0,0
 1380 SYMBOL 71,&fc,&9c,&80,&9c,&c4,&c4,&fc,0
 1390 SYMBOL 72,&c4,&c4,&84,&fc,&84,&8c,&8c,0
 1400 SYMBOL 73,&7c,&14,&10,&10,&10,&50,&7c,0
 1410 SYMBOL 74,&7c,&54,&10,&18,&18,&90,&60,0
 1420 SYMBOL 75,&c8,&90,&a0,&d0,&88,&8c,&8c,0
 1430 SYMBOL 76,&c0,&c0,&c0,&80,&80,&98,&f8,0
 1440 SYMBOL 77,&82,&ee,&92,&92,&ba,&82,&c6,0
 1450 SYMBOL 78,&8c,&c4,&c4,&b4,&8c,&8c,&84,0
 1460 SYMBOL 79,&fc,&c4,&c4,&84,&8c,&8c,&fc,0
 1470 SYMBOL 80,&fc,&c4,&8c,&fc,&80,&c0,&c0,0
 1480 SYMBOL 81,&fc,&c4,&c4,&84,&94,&88,&f4,0
 1490 SYMBOL 82,&fc,&c4,&8c,&fc,&90,&c8,&cc,0
 1500 SYMBOL 83,&fc,&84,&80,&78,&04,&84,&fc,0
 1510 SYMBOL 84,&7c,&10,&10,&10,&30,&30,&30,0
 1520 SYMBOL 85,&c4,&c4,&84,&8c,&8c,&8c,&fc,0
 1530 SYMBOL 86,&c4,&84,&84,&48,&48,&30,&30,0
 1540 SYMBOL 87,&84,&84,&84,&b4,&b4,&cc,&84,0
 1550 SYMBOL 88,&cc,&cc,&48,&30,&48,&cc,&cc,0
 1560 SYMBOL 89,&86,&86,&44,&28,&10,&18,&18,0
 1570 SYMBOL 90,&fc,&84,&08,&30,&40,&84,&fc,0
 1580 SYMBOL 91,&7c,&60,&60,&40,&40,&4c,&7c,0
 1590 SYMBOL 92,0,&60,&30,&10,&08,&0c,&06,0
 1600 SYMBOL 93,&3e,&32,&02,&02,&06,&06,&3e,0
 1610 SYMBOL 94,&18,&24,&42,&42,0,0,0,0
 1620 SYMBOL 95,0,0,0,0,0,0,&ee,&bb
 1630 SYMBOL 96,&3c,&22,&78,&20,&78,&20,&7e,0
 1640 SYMBOL 97,0,0,&f8,&98,&88,&cc,&fc,0
 1650 SYMBOL 98,&80,&80,&f8,&98,&88,&c8,&f8,0
 1660 SYMBOL 99,0,0,&f8,&88,&c0,&c8,&f8,0
 1670 SYMBOL 100,&08,&08,&f8,&98,&88,&c8,&f8,0
 1680 SYMBOL 101,0,0,&f8,&80,&e0,&80,&f8,0
 1690 SYMBOL 102,0,&1c,&10,&38,&38,&10,&70,0
 1700 SYMBOL 103,0,0,&f8,&98,&88,&f8,&08,&78
 1710 SYMBOL 104,&c0,&c0,&80,&f8,&88,&cc,&cc,0
 1720 SYMBOL 105,0,&60,0,&60,&60,&70,&70,0
 1730 SYMBOL 106,&08,0,&18,&18,&08,&08,&68,&78
 1740 SYMBOL 107,&c0,&c0,&cc,&d8,&f0,&d8,&cc,0
 1750 SYMBOL 108,&30,&30,&30,&30,&30,&30,&30,0
 1760 SYMBOL 109,0,0,&cc,&b4,&b4,&84,&84,0
 1770 SYMBOL 110,0,0,&f8,&98,&88,&cc,&cc,0
 1780 SYMBOL 111,0,0,&f8,&98,&88,&c8,&f8,0
 1790 SYMBOL 112,0,0,&f8,&98,&88,&f8,&80,&80
 1800 SYMBOL 113,0,0,&f8,&88,&c8,&f8,&0c,&0c
 1810 SYMBOL 114,0,0,&f8,&98,&80,&c0,&c0,0
 1820 SYMBOL 115,0,0,&f8,&80,&70,&08,&f8,0
 1830 SYMBOL 116,&60,&60,&20,&78,&20,&28,&38,0
 1840 SYMBOL 117,0,0,&c8,&c8,&98,&98,&f8,0
 1850 SYMBOL 118,0,0,&cc,&cc,&88,&70,&20,0
 1860 SYMBOL 119,0,0,&84,&84,&b4,&b4,&cc,0
 1870 SYMBOL 120,0,0,&cc,&48,&30,&48,&cc,0
 1880 SYMBOL 121,0,0,&88,&c8,&f8,&08,&08,&78
 1890 SYMBOL 122,0,0,&f8,&90,&20,&48,&f8,0
 1900 SYMBOL 123,&0c,&30,&10,&60,&10,&30,&0c,0
 1910 SYMBOL 124,&df,&db,&db,&9f,&83,&9b,&fb,0
 1920 SYMBOL 125,&30,&0c,&08,&06,&08,&0c,&30,0
 1930 SYMBOL 126,&7c,&82,&ba,&a2,&ba,&82,&7c,0
 1940 SYMBOL 127,&FF,&FF,&FF,&FF,&FF,&FF,&FF,&FF
 1950 RETURN

Process was the same:

  1. Load the disk image into an emulator
  2. Load the game
  3. Save the game as a v2 snapshot – these are uncompressed memory dumps
  4. Dump the snapshot to a png using phooky’s PROM/bin2png.py
  5. Crop that image down to just the character data and save as a plain PBM
  6. For each column, create the hex dump using shell code a bit like this:
sc=32; pnminvert snowball_font.pbm | pnmnoraw | tail +3 | cut --character="1-8"|while read f; do echo "printf '&%02x, \n' "\"\$((2#${f}))\"; done | bash | fmt -w43 | sed 's/,$//;' | while read g; do echo SYMBOL $sc", "$g; sc=$((sc + 1)); done | awk '{print 10 * (NR + 0) " " $0;}' > schars032to063.bas

TBH, the 901447-10m third-party font for the PET did the Data 70/Westminster faux-MICR thing better, and likely earlier too.

screenshot from an emulated Commodore PET with green text on a black background. The font is some horrific "futuristic" thing that looks like the numbers on the bottom of paper cheques, for some reason. The first line of text says *** 901447-10m Char ROM *** Below this, there are a few lines of generic "lorem ipsum" filler text. The last line says "arfle barfle gloop?", which was the Level9 parser's error message. Under this, an ASCII chart of the characters from space (32) to DEL (127)

The coolest font (when I was 15, that is)

vaguely uncial style bitmap font from old 8-bit Level 9 text adventure
The Colossal Cave font on the Amstrad CPC 464

Though I didn’t really have the patience for text adventures, Level 9 used what I thought was the coolest font (circa 1985). After checking through them all on the Internet Archive Amstrad CPC software library, I couldn’t find a version that used this bitmap font. I eventually found it on nvg. After lots of messing about, I extracted it and present it here. I’m sure I’ll make a TTF of it soon enough.

Tastes change a bit, don’t they?

 10 REM     *** L9FONT.BAS ***
 15 REM bitmap font from Level 9's
 20 REM Colossal Cave adventure
 30 REM  on the Amstrad CPC 464
 40 REM (it was so cool at the time…)
 50 REM Dug up by scruss, 2019-12
 60 REM ==============================
 100 SYMBOL AFTER 32
 110 MODE 1
 120 GOSUB 1000
 130 PRINT" *** It's the Level 9 font ***"
 140 PRINT" ***  from Colossal Cave!  ***"
 150 PRINT"   Dug up by scruss, 2019-12"
 160 PRINT
 170 PEN 2
 180 PRINT"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur"
 190 PRINT"adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor"
 200 PRINT"incididunt ut labore et dolore magna"
 210 PRINT"aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis"
 220 PRINT"nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris"
 230 PRINT"nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat"
 240 PRINT"arfle barfle gloop? | | |"
 250 PRINT
 260 PEN 1
 270 FOR i%=32 TO 127
 280 PRINT CHR$(i%); " ";
 290 NEXT i%
 300 PRINT
 310 PRINT
 990 END
 1000 SYMBOL 33,&18,&24,&24,&24,&18,&0,&18,&0
 1010 SYMBOL 34,&66,&66,&44,&88,&0,&0,&0,&0
 1020 SYMBOL 35,&0,&24,&7E,&24,&24,&7E,&24,&0
 1030 SYMBOL 36,&12,&7C,&D0,&7C,&16,&FC,&10,&0
 1040 SYMBOL 37,&E4,&A4,&E8,&10,&2E,&4A,&4E,&0
 1050 SYMBOL 38,&70,&D8,&D8,&72,&D6,&CC,&76,&0
 1060 SYMBOL 39,&30,&30,&20,&40,&0,&0,&0,&0
 1070 SYMBOL 40,&1C,&38,&70,&70,&70,&38,&1C,&0
 1080 SYMBOL 41,&70,&38,&1C,&1C,&1C,&38,&70,&0
 1090 SYMBOL 42,&10,&54,&38,&FE,&38,&54,&10,&0
 1100 SYMBOL 43,&0,&10,&10,&7C,&10,&10,&0,&0
 1110 SYMBOL 44,&0,&0,&0,&0,&30,&30,&20,&40
 1120 SYMBOL 45,&0,&0,&0,&F8,&0,&0,&0,&0
 1130 SYMBOL 46,&0,&0,&0,&0,&0,&60,&60,&0
 1140 SYMBOL 47,&0,&4,&8,&10,&20,&40,&0,&0
 1150 SYMBOL 48,&7C,&C6,&CE,&D6,&E6,&C6,&7C,&0
 1160 SYMBOL 49,&8,&18,&38,&18,&18,&18,&3C,&0
 1170 SYMBOL 50,&3C,&66,&C,&18,&30,&62,&7E,&0
 1180 SYMBOL 51,&7E,&4C,&18,&3C,&6,&66,&3C,&0
 1190 SYMBOL 52,&4,&C,&1C,&2C,&7E,&C,&1E,&0
 1200 SYMBOL 53,&3E,&66,&60,&7C,&6,&6,&7C,&0
 1210 SYMBOL 54,&3C,&66,&60,&7C,&66,&66,&3C,&0
 1220 SYMBOL 55,&7E,&46,&6,&C,&C,&18,&18,&0
 1230 SYMBOL 56,&3C,&66,&34,&18,&2C,&66,&3C,&0
 1240 SYMBOL 57,&3C,&66,&66,&3E,&6,&66,&3C,&0
 1250 SYMBOL 58,&0,&30,&30,&0,&0,&30,&30,&0
 1260 SYMBOL 59,&0,&30,&30,&0,&30,&30,&20,&40
 1270 SYMBOL 60,&1C,&30,&60,&C0,&60,&30,&1C,&0
 1280 SYMBOL 61,&0,&0,&F8,&0,&F8,&0,&0,&0
 1290 SYMBOL 62,&E0,&30,&18,&C,&18,&30,&E0,&0
 1300 SYMBOL 63,&7C,&64,&C,&18,&10,&0,&10,&0
 1310 SYMBOL 64,&7C,&C6,&DE,&D2,&DE,&C0,&7E,&0
 1320 SYMBOL 65,&18,&6C,&C6,&C6,&FE,&66,&F6,&0
 1330 SYMBOL 66,&FC,&C6,&C6,&FC,&C6,&C6,&FC,&0
 1340 SYMBOL 67,&3C,&66,&C0,&C0,&C0,&66,&3C,&0
 1350 SYMBOL 68,&D8,&EC,&C6,&C6,&C6,&EC,&D8,&0
 1360 SYMBOL 69,&FE,&62,&60,&78,&60,&62,&FE,&0
 1370 SYMBOL 70,&FE,&62,&60,&78,&60,&60,&E0,&0
 1380 SYMBOL 71,&3C,&66,&C0,&CE,&C6,&66,&3C,&0
 1390 SYMBOL 72,&C6,&C6,&C6,&FE,&C6,&C6,&C6,&0
 1400 SYMBOL 73,&7E,&18,&18,&18,&18,&18,&7E,&0
 1410 SYMBOL 74,&FE,&8C,&C,&C,&C,&CC,&78,&0
 1420 SYMBOL 75,&E6,&CC,&D8,&F0,&D8,&CC,&C6,&0
 1430 SYMBOL 76,&E0,&C0,&C0,&C0,&C0,&C2,&FE,&0
 1440 SYMBOL 77,&C6,&EE,&FE,&D6,&C6,&C6,&CC,&0
 1450 SYMBOL 78,&CE,&E6,&F6,&DE,&CE,&C6,&C6,&0
 1460 SYMBOL 79,&38,&6C,&C6,&C6,&C6,&6C,&38,&0
 1470 SYMBOL 80,&DC,&E6,&C6,&C6,&FC,&C0,&C0,&0
 1480 SYMBOL 81,&38,&6C,&C6,&C6,&CA,&64,&3A,&0
 1490 SYMBOL 82,&DC,&E6,&C6,&C6,&FC,&CC,&C6,&0
 1500 SYMBOL 83,&7C,&C6,&C0,&7C,&6,&C6,&7C,&0
 1510 SYMBOL 84,&FE,&B2,&30,&30,&30,&30,&30,&0
 1520 SYMBOL 85,&E6,&66,&C6,&C6,&C6,&C6,&7C,&0
 1530 SYMBOL 86,&E6,&66,&C6,&C6,&CC,&78,&30,&0
 1540 SYMBOL 87,&EC,&66,&C6,&C6,&D6,&D6,&6C,&0
 1550 SYMBOL 88,&EE,&C6,&6C,&38,&6C,&C6,&EE,&0
 1560 SYMBOL 89,&EE,&C6,&2C,&18,&18,&18,&18,&0
 1570 SYMBOL 90,&FE,&8C,&18,&30,&60,&C2,&FE,&0
 1580 SYMBOL 91,&7C,&64,&60,&60,&60,&60,&7C,&0
 1590 SYMBOL 92,&0,&60,&30,&10,&8,&C,&6,&0
 1600 SYMBOL 93,&3E,&6,&6,&6,&6,&26,&3E,&0
 1610 SYMBOL 94,&18,&24,&42,&42,&0,&0,&0,&0
 1620 SYMBOL 95,&0,&0,&0,&0,&0,&0,&EE,&BB
 1630 SYMBOL 96,&3C,&22,&78,&20,&78,&20,&7E,&0
 1640 SYMBOL 97,&0,&0,&74,&DC,&C4,&CC,&74,&0
 1650 SYMBOL 98,&C0,&C0,&DC,&E6,&C6,&E6,&DC,&0
 1660 SYMBOL 99,&0,&0,&78,&CC,&C0,&CC,&78,&0
 1670 SYMBOL 100,&0,&70,&18,&7C,&CC,&CC,&78,&0
 1680 SYMBOL 101,&0,&0,&78,&CC,&FC,&C0,&7C,&0
 1690 SYMBOL 102,&68,&74,&60,&F8,&60,&60,&60,&C0
 1700 SYMBOL 103,&0,&0,&78,&CC,&C0,&CC,&7C,&C
 1710 SYMBOL 104,&C0,&C0,&D8,&EC,&CC,&D8,&DC,&0
 1720 SYMBOL 105,&C,&0,&38,&18,&18,&18,&38,&0
 1730 SYMBOL 106,&6,&0,&1C,&C,&C,&C,&4C,&38
 1740 SYMBOL 107,&C0,&C0,&CC,&D8,&F0,&D8,&CE,&0
 1750 SYMBOL 108,&30,&30,&30,&30,&30,&36,&3E,&0
 1760 SYMBOL 109,&0,&0,&AC,&D6,&D6,&C6,&CC,&0
 1770 SYMBOL 110,&0,&0,&BC,&C6,&C6,&CC,&DE,&0
 1780 SYMBOL 111,&0,&0,&7C,&C6,&C6,&C6,&7C,&0
 1790 SYMBOL 112,&0,&0,&DC,&E6,&C6,&E6,&DC,&C0
 1800 SYMBOL 113,&0,&0,&76,&CE,&C6,&CE,&76,&6
 1810 SYMBOL 114,&0,&0,&DC,&E6,&C6,&FC,&C6,&0
 1820 SYMBOL 115,&0,&0,&3C,&60,&3C,&8E,&7C,&0
 1830 SYMBOL 116,&18,&30,&FC,&30,&30,&32,&1C,&0
 1840 SYMBOL 117,&0,&0,&E6,&66,&C6,&C6,&7A,&0
 1850 SYMBOL 118,&0,&0,&EC,&66,&C6,&EC,&38,&0
 1860 SYMBOL 119,&0,&0,&EC,&C6,&D2,&7C,&28,&0
 1870 SYMBOL 120,&0,&0,&EE,&6C,&38,&6C,&EE,&0
 1880 SYMBOL 121,&0,&0,&EC,&C6,&6C,&18,&30,&E0
 1890 SYMBOL 122,&0,&0,&FE,&9C,&30,&62,&FE,&0
 1900 SYMBOL 123,&C,&30,&30,&60,&30,&30,&C,&0
 1910 SYMBOL 124,&CF,&DB,&DB,&CF,&C3,&DB,&FB,&0
 1920 SYMBOL 125,&60,&18,&18,&C,&18,&18,&60,&0
 1930 SYMBOL 126,&7C,&C6,&BA,&A2,&BA,&C6,&7C,&0
 1940 SYMBOL 127,&FF,&FF,&FF,&FF,&FF,&FF,&FF,&FF
 1950 RETURN

mnicmp: the DECwriter lives again!

I just made and uploaded this to FontLibrary: mnicmp.

This is meant more as an exercise in learning FontForge‘s programming back-end, and definitely showed me that FontForge is incredibly powerful. After the learning comes silliness, so I ended up turning the dots into something like:

I learned you really have to consider a dot-matrix font to be an array of points rather than a glyph, because otherwise you get the dots coming out the wrong sort of oval:

Blue font has been italicized as a whole, while the black dots were done properly

You don’t want to know what it did to the stars …

Local archive: mnicmp.zip

<sup>ping trouble with a long spoon

I like Rob Goodlatte‘s Flow Theme for WordPress. But it makes me look like a shambling moron in some of my equations, viz.:

What’s ‘d2 v3’ supposed to mean? I certainly didn’t type that.

Digging (not very deeply) into Rob’s CSS, I found this section

html, body, div, span, applet, object, iframe,
h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, p, blockquote, pre,
a, abbr, acronym, address, big, cite, code,
del, dfn, em, font, img, ins, kbd, q, s, samp,
small, strike, strong, sub, sup, tt, var,
b, u, i, center,
dl, dt, dd, ol, ul, li,
fieldset, form, label, legend,
table, caption, tbody, tfoot, thead, tr, th, td {
 margin: 0;
 padding: 0;
 border: 0;
 outline: 0;
 font-size: 100%;
 vertical-align: baseline;
 background: transparent;
}

That forces pretty much all text to be aligned with the baseline, including <sup> and <sub>. While it may be all pretty like, it also destroys the sense of my markup.

Deleting the references to sub and sup in line 5 fixes the problem. Let’s have that equation again:

Laaaahrvely.