What font did Tektronix use in their manuals/equipment 1960s? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: setq
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 08, 2016, 12:44:53 pm
content: Does anyone know what font Tektronix used in the 1960s in their manuals and on part designators?Samples below (321A for ref, not mine):

author: XOIIO
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 08, 2016, 12:54:38 pm
content: maybe try thishttps://www.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/

author: setq
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 08, 2016, 01:43:07 pm
content: Just ran a scan through that. "Sorry, no close results were found."

author: zapta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 08, 2016, 01:47:56 pm
content: You can try asking herehttp://tekmuseum.ebaman.com/emailme.html

author: rollatorwieltje
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 08, 2016, 02:05:56 pm
content: ProbablyFutura, it was used quite a lot.

author: StuUK
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 08, 2016, 02:26:04 pm
content: Quote from: rollatorwieltje on September 08, 2016, 02:05:56 pmHighly likely,http://idsgn.org/posts/know-your-type-futura/

author: setq
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 08, 2016, 02:43:48 pm
content: Futura is exactly it! Thank you rollatorwieltje/StuUK

author: TerraHertz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 09, 2016, 02:05:43 am
content: Excellent, thanks for that!http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/adobe/futura/want money, like $35 per variant.Free:http://www.futurafontfree.com/Free versions.http://www.megafontbundle.com/downloads/futura-font/$5 versions

author: edpalmer42
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 09, 2016, 02:21:17 am
content: In the past, I've usedhttp://www.identifont.comto find the name of a font. It's a question/answer system that eventually homes in on the name based on characteristics of the font. It agrees that the example font is Futura.Ed

author: zapta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 09, 2016, 02:28:23 pm
content: Quote from: edpalmer42 on September 09, 2016, 02:21:17 amVery neat site. Didn't know such things exist.BTW, on my mobile phone it uses Motiva Sans font.

author: TerraHertz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2016, 08:26:35 am
content: Coincidentally I just came across a book The Encyclopaedia Of Type Face, London Blandford Press, 1953, 1958, at my parent's place. Was my grandfather's. Here's the 3 pages for Futura font, scanned and merged to one image. More for historical interest, than any use.It's sure ironic now that a font called Futura was created in 1927.

author: setq
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2016, 10:47:33 am
content: Thanks for your effort there. It's nice to see some background of these things.I rather like futura. It has that 1950s-1960s space race feel to it.

author: T3sl4co1l
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2016, 10:56:26 am
content: Quote from: TerraHertz on September 18, 2016, 08:26:35 amFuturism was strong back then. Just look atMetropolis!I suppose it's always been strong. We've got the Singularity looming ahead of ourselves, right now...Tim

author: timb
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2016, 12:42:57 am
content: Quote from: StuUK on September 08, 2016, 02:26:04 pmEveryone is always jerking off to Helvetica, like it's Sex Goddess of all Fonts; when in reality, Futura is probably the most influential font of the 20th Century. It's everywhere.

author: setq
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2016, 05:58:36 am
content: Hipsters like Helvetica. There was a fad in London for a bit with them all wearing stuff branded Helvetica. Well I say all, but just the design hipsters. I nearly bought a comic sans T-shirt just to annoy them.

author: TerraHertz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2016, 06:04:35 am
content: Real Men use only Times New Roman.

author: David Hess
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2016, 10:29:03 pm
content: Arial, Helvetica, and Futura are very similar with Futura being even more plain. I often choose Arial or some system font for probably the same reasons that led Tektronix to use Futura.I like Futura's lowercase A and straight descender on its lowercase Y. I do not like its descending uppercase J or the straight descender on its lowercase J.The improvements I would like to see in a technical font are a horizontal slash through upper case Z to distinguish it from 2, maybe a horizontal slash through 7, and a diagonal slash through 0.

author: timb
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2016, 10:45:39 pm
content: Quote from: David Hess on September 19, 2016, 10:29:03 pmAdobe's Source Code Pro is my favorite technical font. I use it absolutely everywhere; from my terminal to labels on component drawers.It's monospaced and comes in a number of different weights, from ExtraLight to Black.The best part is,it's completely free!Adobe even has the source up on GitHub, if you're into editing or building OpenType fonts yourself, which I've actually been meaning to do. I'd like to see a small strike added to the Z.

author: Alex Eisenhut
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 20, 2016, 03:17:34 am
content: What did they use on the plastic spines of the 1960s manuals?

author: David Hess
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 20, 2016, 04:07:29 am
content: Quote from: Alex Eisenhut on September 20, 2016, 03:17:34 amIt is the little difficult to tell because the spines have no lower case but they did not use Futura; the 7 and 9 do not match. The R has a recurve so it is not Arial. It looks like Helvetica. The documentary text in the manual itself also looks like Helvetica. The parts list at least in my 7904 manual uses a serif font that looks like it came off of a typewriter.

author: TerraHertz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 20, 2016, 06:00:10 am
content: Quote from: timb on September 19, 2016, 10:45:39 pmThat's quite nice, thanks. For a virtual on-screen keyboard project I've been using Tahoma, but that is nicer. Except for the '%' sign. _Why_ did they break the slash? Oh well, source available.This project is stalled while I try to learn how to use FontForge.http://fontforge.org/Why am I doing a virtual keyboard when there are dozens already? Because as a component of working on an OS, I'm going back to basics and adding a lot of things to ASCII that those guys back then didn't think of. Lacking which, led to a lot of bullshit workarounds and conceptual potholes in later comp-sci evolution. Also part of my 'file formats for representing printed works' effort. And for this I need a keyboard allowing typing of 'rejigged ASCII' for development work. (Yes I have a better name for it, but not going to blow that up by mentioning prematurely.)Pic below is a screen grab of an early rough keyboard version, in progress, looking like a standard keyboard just to keep it simple. It's all html & javascript, not yet functional. The final layout will be quite different.