Laser Printer Applications Manual

SYMBOL SETS
Let’ssummarizebriefly,to putthe subjectof symbolsetsin context.
The attributesof a fontdeterminewhatthatfont willlook like whenit is
printed. We covered all but orientationat the start of this chapter, and
orientationin thelastchapter.A font’sattributesinclude:
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orientation (portraitor landscape)
symbol set (whichwe’lllookat next)
spacing (monospacedor proportional)
pitch (10or 16.66charactersper inch,for example)
font height (measuredin points)
style (uprightor italics)
stroke
weight (light,mediumor bold)
typeface (LinePrinter,TmsRomn,Courierand so on)
Thoughthey are not font attributes,such printingfeaturesas subscripts,
superscriptsandunderliningare treatedalongwith fontsin the following
chapters.Eachemulationhas its own way of providingthesefeatures.
Incidentally,thebestwayto underlineisto usethe underlinecommandin
theemulationyouareusing,insteadof backspacingandoverprintingwith
theseparateunderlinecharacter(–).If youdo thelatterwith
proportionally
spacedtext,you’llusuallyfindtheunderliningis too longfor the text.
What are symbol sets?
Keyboardsdifferfromcountrytocountry.TheBritishneedtheirf symbol,
theFrenchneedtheirQand6, theSpanishneedtheir~andiletc.Scientists
needparticularmathematicalsignstoo.Thereeasilycouldbe fourhundred
or morepossiblesymbolsfor anygivenfont.
However,thenumberof symbolsprintersstorefor a fontis limitedto 256
slots,asinASCII.Sosomesymbols,ortheorderofsomesymbols,candiffer
in anyfont.Eachuniqueselectionandarrangementof symbolsis a symbol
set (sometimescalleda “graphicset”or “characterset”).
The symtmlat position91 for exampleis an openbracket,[ , in theusual
ASCIIsymbolset.ButthesamepositionholdsA(capitalAwithanumlaut)
in the Germansymbolset.
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