Original Font for OD&D manuals and 1st Edition?
Post new topic Reply to topic Page 2 of 21, 2
Author

User avatar

Prolific Collector

Posts: 260
Joined: Feb 25, 2003
Last Visit: Jan 10, 2021

Post Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 1:06 pm 
 

Busman wrote:but it doesn't explain the "Rules for Fantastic Medieval Wargames..." text.


I'm fairly certain this is some variant of Franklin Gothic at this point.

The tricky part is that these books were set back in the early 1970s which was before PostScript was created. Since the creation of PostScript, they changed points to equal 1/72 of an inch exactly, instead of 1/72.27 of an inch.

This, of course, caused most foundries to go back and update their fonts to the new standards; and along the way a lot of them updated their fonts.

Univers for example, seems to have had slight modifications to the lowercase e and some other characters. Which is a bit frustrating, because it has me questioning if I've found the exact right font, etc.

  

User avatar

Prolific Collector

Posts: 260
Joined: Feb 25, 2003
Last Visit: Jan 10, 2021

Post Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 1:10 pm 
 

Wandering Monster wrote:Hi everyone,

FYI, there is a font out there called SALOON GIRL -- from a font vendor called Font Mesa, who sells on www.myfonts.com -- which is a dead ringer for Quentin, and even includes a lowercase alphabet and several different shadows/outlines/fills versions for $40.00!

Cheers,
JohnH
aka Wandering Monster


Good find. You can get the inline version for just 20.00 if you want to save even more.

  

User avatar

Prolific Collector

Posts: 165
Joined: May 15, 2005
Last Visit: Jan 14, 2020
Location: Woonsocket, Rhode Island

Post Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 3:16 pm 
 

Hi everyone,

Further complicating matters is that when the original D&D materials were produced, type was available either metal (or in some cases, wood) type, cast by type foundries; through machines known as Linotypes (both lead-based and electronic); or by LetraSet dry transfer sheets.  Computer fonts/Postscript didn't come along until the 1980s.

For example, I think the Quentin font was mainly available by dry transfer sheets, while a lot of the other type was probably hand-set using lead type, I'd be willing to bet.

And not only that, but each foundry often had a slightly different version of each font (i.e., Futura, Garamond, etc.), which makes determining the precise version(s) used just that much more difficult...  :?

Cheers,
JohnH
aka Wandering Monster

  

User avatar

Prolific Collector

Posts: 260
Joined: Feb 25, 2003
Last Visit: Jan 10, 2021

Post Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 6:48 pm 
 

So, while I've been doing this examination of fonts in the OCE, I've come across a couple of (mildly) interesting things.

I have my physical copy that I use for constant reference, which is a solid 6th printing. But, occasionally, I'll look at the sample PDF up on RPGNow (http://watermark.rpgnow.com/pdf_preview ... sample.pdf) and there are differences.

The biggest differences thus far are the presence of the word FORWARD at the top of page 3. And the switching of hobbit to halfling on page 6 at the end first sentence of the Fighting-Men section.

It seems that there may have been a later printing than the early 6th printings that had some further changes (most likely to address the last remnants of copyright infringement).

I'm tempted to grab the rpgnow pdf and see what other changes there may have been from my version.

  

User avatar

Long-Winded Collector
Subweb Admin
JG Valuation Board

Posts: 4583
Joined: Nov 08, 2002
Last Visit: Mar 28, 2024
Location: Land of 10,000 ponds

Post Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 7:12 pm 
 

Busman wrote:So, while I've been doing this examination of fonts in the OCE, I've come across a couple of (mildly) interesting things.

I have my physical copy that I use for constant reference, which is a solid 6th printing. But, occasionally, I'll look at the sample PDF up on RPGNow (http://watermark.rpgnow.com/pdf_preview ... sample.pdf) and there are differences.

The biggest differences thus far are the presence of the word FORWARD at the top of page 3. And the switching of hobbit to halfling on page 6 at the end first sentence of the Fighting-Men section.

It seems that there may have been a later printing than the early 6th printings that had some further changes (most likely to address the last remnants of copyright infringement).

I'm tempted to grab the rpgnow pdf and see what other changes there may have been from my version.


You may want to read this:
viewtopic.php?t=1941&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=oce+7th

There are 4 prints for the white box set known.

ShaneG.


I reject your reality and substitute my own

 WWW  

User avatar

Prolific Collector

Posts: 260
Joined: Feb 25, 2003
Last Visit: Jan 10, 2021

Post Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 2:05 am 
 

I've made some very good progress on all of the fonts in the OCE boxed set. I've nailed all of the fonts on the cover and interior sections with the exception of the word INDEX at the top of the index page (but I'm hot on the trial of that one) and the font from the catalog at the very end, though that one is some sort of Times/Roman font, I just need to nail down the exact font.

I haven't found any fonts in the 2nd or 3rd books that differ from Men & Magic, so the only thing left after those two small finds is the font from the reference sheets, but it looks fairly distinctive so I'm sure it will come pretty quickly.

The most interesting thing is the replacement of some sections with Univers instead of Univers Light where they had to re-work the books from the Tolkien infringements. I can almost picture someone saying that the font was Univers when they re-typeset the books either forgetting or confusing with the printer that it was a particular variant of Univers.

  

User avatar

Prolific Collector

Posts: 165
Joined: May 15, 2005
Last Visit: Jan 14, 2020
Location: Woonsocket, Rhode Island

Post Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 12:43 pm 
 

Hi Busman,

Busman wrote:I've made some very good progress on all of the fonts in the OCE boxed set. I've nailed all of the fonts on the cover and interior sections with the exception of the word INDEX at the top of the index page (but I'm hot on the trial of that one) and the font from the catalog at the very end, though that one is some sort of Times/Roman font, I just need to nail down the exact font.

I haven't found any fonts in the 2nd or 3rd books that differ from Men & Magic, so the only thing left after those two small finds is the font from the reference sheets, but it looks fairly distinctive so I'm sure it will come pretty quickly.

Are there scans of these aforementioned fonts available for perusal?  I'm a fairly dab hand at ID'ing fonts...

Busman wrote:The most interesting thing is the replacement of some sections with Univers instead of Univers Light where they had to re-work the books from the Tolkien infringements. I can almost picture someone saying that the font was Univers when they re-typeset the books either forgetting or confusing with the printer that it was a particular variant of Univers.

Do we actually know for a fact that these original booklets were typeset with metal type rather than hand-set using rub-off LetraSet type?  I ask just out of curiosity, because if the original printer received LetraSet copy, then most likely this artwork was shot with a camera so that a metal printing plate could be generated.

If copy changes were later required, the printer might have had to set the replacement copy using metal type instead of the LetraSet stuff, and a precise/exact match might not have been available.

I could be wildly off-base here, which is why I'm making this general appeal to our resident sages...  :)

Cheers,
JohnH
aka Wandering Monster

  
Previous
Post new topic Reply to topic Page 2 of 21, 2