🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1989Aug16.152652.3275@cs.rochester.edu> ken@cs.rochester.edu.UUCP (Ken Yap) writes:
>
>Type samples are used to
>give an idea of the appearance of a typeface, including kerning. One
>phrase I have seen is HAMBURGEFONSTIV. Does anybody know the origin of
>this?

That particular spelling is probably from Donald Knuth's The METAFONT
Book, or possibly his book on the Computer Modern Roman typefaces.  If
my memory serves me right, he also uses it in lower case.

I haven't come across either of these before. I have, though, seen the
word 'Hamburg' (with that combination of upper and lower case letters)
on several type proofs. It was explained to me that that word contains
the most important elements (glyphemes ?) of a typeface.

If 'Hamburg' looks good, and the typeface is built from the elements
that appear there, chances are that the remaining glyphs also will
look good. It's sort of a 'back-of-the-envelope' test of a typeface.

The remaining letters ('efonstiv') have probably been added to make
that test even more conclusive.  I would think, though, that the 'n'
wouldn't contribute much to the outcome of the test - its elements are
already present in 'm'.  Similarly, 'i' is largely represented by the
'r'.
-- 
Anders Thulin, Programsystem AB, Teknikringen 2A, S-583 30 Linkoping, Sweden
ath@prosys.se   {uunet,mcvax}!sunic!prosys!ath