bitmap fonts

[ChristTrekker]

I've spent quite a bit of time over the years, especially in the past year or two, thinking about recreating the look of the classic Mac UI. (I like Platinum! If you've been to our wiki, you already know this.) One important aspect of this is fonts. It seems that of the original bitmap "city" fonts, only London, Toronto, and Los Angeles have not been recreated as TrueTypes by Apple or third parties.

I suppose most people have found other typefaces to be suitable alternatives and do not miss them, so it's unlikely anyone will update them. As someone who is nostalgic about the classic Mac OS, I do miss them, especially since I don't get to use them, not having a (working) computer that runs Mac OS anymore.

So I'm adding to my (long-term) project list the design of an homage to these early fonts. If anyone would like to help by contributing a screenshot of a character map in all the native sizes, that would be a terrific starting point. An illustration like this would be great for the wiki, anyway.

 

[ChristTrekker]

Anybody know which systems included Toronto? According to Apple's website, it wasn't included in System 7. Other references online confirm it was removed in one of the earlier system updates.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

Please be careful, fonts are copyrighted. I doubt Apple would come after you, but you never know.

 

[ChristTrekker]

Please be careful, fonts are copyrighted. I doubt Apple would come after you, but you never know.

The fonts are (i.e. you cannot redistribute them without permission), but not the basic shapes of the letters, unless they are trademarked. This is how multiple typeface foundries can all have their own, independently-created version of the "same font". As long as you don't put the Apple logo (trademark!) in your version, you can create your own "homage" to Toronto, or San Francisco, or whatever.

 

[Scott Baret]

Hank Gilette already did that with San Francisco. His public domain SaintFrancis font is a TrueType version of SF.

As far as Toronto, I've been wondering that myself. The only place I've ever seen it is with Broderbund's Print Shop.

BTW: The Apple logo characters in the fonts are trademarked. Notice in some fonts, such as the Dubl-Click World Class Fonts, that their logo appears on Option-Shift-K instead.

 

[ChristTrekker]

Hank Gilette already did that with San Francisco. His public domain SaintFrancis font is a TrueType version of SF.

I've collected links to TT versions of the classic Mac fonts in my user area of the wiki. As I mentioned, the only missing one are London, Los Angeles, and Toronto. We have a copy of Saint Francis there, BTW, since the original source seems to have disappeared.

As far as Toronto, I've been wondering that myself. The only place I've ever seen it is with Broderbund's Print Shop.

Evidently it disappeared before 6.0.8...the sys6bits file from zone38 is a direct OTF conversion from the System 6 install disks on Apple's site. No Toronto.

BTW: The Apple logo characters in the fonts are trademarked. Notice in some fonts, such as the Dubl-Click World Class Fonts, that their logo appears on Option-Shift-K instead.

Yeah, that would be a good location to put a funny little pic of oneself, or something.

 

[dru]

I posted a truetype recreation of Los Angeles called City of Angels.

It's based on another attempt from 1995 which wasn't working right in OSX. You can get it at this link. Feel free to share it.

http://www.evilshare.com/43939bee-5e83-102b-a14f-000b6aa2a5f8

 

[ChristTrekker]

I posted a truetype recreation of Los Angeles called City of Angels.
It's based on another attempt from 1995 which wasn't working right in OSX. You can get it at this link. Feel free to share it.

http://www.evilshare.com/43939bee-5e83-102b-a14f-000b6aa2a5f8

If the license allows it, just upload it to our wiki.

 

[Aoresteen]

Please be careful, fonts are copyrighted. I doubt Apple would come after you, but you never know.

The US Copyright Office has consistently refused to register fonts. Typefaces are not copyrightable under US law.

http://www.typeright.org/feature4.html

 

[dru]

If the license allows it, just upload it to our wiki.

I didn't know about that feature. [] ]'>

It's up now.

 

[Charlieman]

The US Copyright Office has consistently refused to register fonts. Typefaces are not copyrightable under US law.
http://www.typeright.org/feature4.html

But they are protected by "registered design" in most civilised countries. The legal status in the USA is an anomaly.

 

[ChristTrekker]

I didn't know about that feature. [] ]'>
It's up now.

Sweet! I don't know how I missed this when you originally posted, but I took a look. Very nice!

 

[ChristTrekker]

I posted a truetype recreation of Los Angeles called City of Angels.
It's based on another attempt from 1995 which wasn't working right in OSX. You can get it at this link. Feel free to share it.

Can you give any more details about the creation of this font? There is no readme included in the zip. Did you make it yourself, or find it elsewhere, or ???