2.6 KiB
3270font: A font for the nostalgic
https://github.com/rbanffy/3270font
A little bit of history
This font is derived from the x3270 font, which, in turn, was translated from the one in Georgia Tech's 3270tool, which was itself hand-copied from a 3270 terminal. I built it because I felt terminals deserve to be pretty. The .sfd font file contains a x3270 bitmap font that was used for guidance.
![Using with the Cathode terminal program] (https://raw.github.com/wiki/rbanffy/3270font/cathode.png)
The format
This font was built with FontForge. You'll need it if you want to
generate fonts for your platform. On most civilized operating systems,
you can simply apt-get install fontforge, yum install fontforge or
even port install fontforge. On others, you may need to grab your copy
from http://fontforge.org/. I encourage you to drop by and read the
tutorials.
![Powerline-shell compatible!] (https://raw.github.com/wiki/rbanffy/3270font/powerline.png)
Adobe Type 1, TTF, OTF and WOFF versions are available for download on http://s3.amazonaws.com/rbanffy/3270_fonts.zip for those who would just like to use them.
![Using it on OSX] (https://raw.github.com/wiki/rbanffy/3270font/osx_terminal.png)
Generating derived files
The script generate_derived.pe calls FontForge and generates
PostScript, OTF, TTF and WOFF versions of the base font, as well as a
slightly more condensed .sfd file with the base font narrowed to 488
units, with no glyph rescaling and its corresponding PostScript, TTF,
OTF and WOFF versions.
Contributing
I don't think GitHub's pull-request mechanism is FontForge-friendly. If you want to contribute (there are a lot of missing glyphs, such as the APL set and most non-latin alphabets which most likely were never built into 3270 terminals), get in touch and we will figure out how to do it right.
Preserving history
I regard the history of electronic computing a very important part of our civilization's history. Consider donating to entities that help preserve it, such as the Computer History Museum (http://www.computerhistory.org/), the IT History Society (http://ithistory.org/) and many others around the world. If you have a historically significant piece of technology in your closet or garage, consider contacting a local technology or industrial-design-oriented museum for advice.
Known problems
I have received errors when installing the OTF, TTF, and PFM fonts on Windows 7 and 8 (didn't try others).